難波津を漕ぎ出て見れば神さぶる
生駒高嶺に雲ぞたなびく
生駒高嶺に雲ぞたなびく
- Roma-ji
-
Naniwato o kogidete mireba kamisaburu Ikoma takane ni kumo zo tanabiku
- English Translation
-
When we have rowed out
from Naniwa's port and look,
on the sacred heights
of Ikoma's lofty peak
the clouds trail and drift along
- Meaning
- When we row out of Naniwa harbor and look back, clouds are trailing over the lofty, godly peak of Ikoma.
- Commentary
-
Book Twenty Frontier Guard Poems 4380
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."
When we row out of Naniwa harbor and look back, clouds trail over the godly peak of Ikoma: the poem sings of a scene seen at sailing. It is the eighth poem from Shimotsuke. Unusually for a guard's poem, it centers on landscape, entrusting the feeling of leaving home behind to the mountain he looked up at as the ship left land.
The author, Ōtabe no Minari, is recorded as a regular guard from Yanada District in Shimotsuke; nothing more is known of him.
The first line, "Naniwato o," "from Naniwa harbor," names the place of sailing.
The second line, "kogidete mireba," "when we row out and look," is the view looking back to land from the ship.
The third line, "kamisaburu," "godly, venerable," praises the form of Mount Ikoma.
The fourth line, "Ikoma takane ni," names the high peak of Ikoma on the border of Yamato and Kawachi.
The closing line, "kumo zo tanabiku," resolved by zo with the attributive tanabiku, puts the feeling of parting into the scene of trailing clouds.
- Author
- Ōtabe no Minari
- Source
- Manyoshu
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Shiranami no yosoru hamabe ni wakarenaba itomo subenami yatabi sode furu
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Kuniguni no sakimori tsudoi funanorite wakaru o mireba itomo subenashi