畳薦牟良自が磯の離磯の
母を離れて行くが悲しさ
母を離れて行くが悲しさ
- Roma-ji
-
Tatamikeme Muraji ga iso no hanariso no haha o hanarete yuku ga kanashisa
- English Translation
-
Woven-mat Muraji,
off its rocky coast there stands
a rock set apart;
so I part from my mother
and go, and oh, the sorrow
- Meaning
- Like the rock standing apart off the shore of Muraji, I must part from my mother and go, and how sad it is.
- Commentary
-
Book Twenty Frontier Guard Poems 4338
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems of the frontier guards sent in rotation to the provinces of Tsukushi in the second month of Tenpyō Shōhō 7, year of the wood sheep."
Like the rock standing apart off the shore of Muraji, I part from my mother and go, and oh, the sorrow: the poem laments parting from his mother. It is the second poem from Suruga, drawing on a familiar coastal scene of home to express the grief of one going away. Tatamikeme is a dialect form of tatamikomo.
The author, Mibube no Michimaro, is recorded as an assistant guard from Suruga; nothing more is known of him.
The first line, "tatamikeme," a mat of woven rushes, is taken as a pillow word for Muraji.
The second line, "Muraji ga iso no," names Muraji, thought to be a coastal place in Suruga, though its location is unknown.
The third line, "hanariso no," is a rock standing apart from the shore; the first three lines form a preface leading to hanarete, "parting."
The fourth line, "haha o hanarete," turns from the preface to parting from his mother, echoing hanariso in hanare.
The closing line, "yuku ga kanashisa," ends on a noun in exclamation: the sorrow of going away.
- Author
- Mibube no Michimaro
- Source
- Manyoshu
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