国々の社の神に幣奉り
贖乞ひすなむ妹が愛しさ
贖乞ひすなむ妹が愛しさ
- Roma-ji
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Kuniguni no yashiro no kami ni nusa matsuri agakoi sunamu imo ga kanashisa
- English Translation
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To the shrine gods
in province after province
she makes offerings,
praying hard for my safe return:
oh how dear she is, my wife
- Meaning
- Offering cloth to the gods of shrines in province after province, she must be praying for my safety; how dear my wife is to me.
- Commentary
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Book Twenty Frontier Guard Poems 4391
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."
Offering cloth to the shrine gods in province after province, she must be praying for my safety; how dear my wife is: the poem imagines the prayers of the wife at home. It is the eighth poem from Shimōsa. Drawing on the custom of families praying to the gods for a traveler's safety, it pictures his wife at prayer. Agakoi means asking the gods for something by making an offering.
The author, Oshinumibe no Iomaro, was a guard from Yūki District in Shimōsa; nothing more is known of him.
The first line, "kuniguni no," "of the provinces," is also the first line of a Shimotsuke poem among the guards' poems.
The second line, "yashiro no kami ni," means "to the gods enshrined there."
The third line, "nusa matsuri," "offering cloth," shows the manner of prayer.
The fourth line, "agakoi sunamu," "she must be making offerings and praying," with the conjectural namu.
The closing line, "imo ga kanashisa," ends on a noun in exclamation: how dear my wife is.
- Author
- Oshinumibe no Iomaro
- Source
- Manyoshu
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Ametsushi no izure no kami o inoraba ka utsukushi haha ni mata koto towamu