天地のいづれの神を祈らばか
愛し母にまた言とはむ
愛し母にまた言とはむ
- Roma-ji
-
Ametsushi no izure no kami o inoraba ka utsukushi haha ni mata koto towamu
- English Translation
-
Of heaven and earth
to which of all the gods
should I offer prayer
that with my beloved mother
I might speak once more again?
- Meaning
- To which of the gods of heaven and earth must I pray, that I may speak once more with my beloved mother?
- Commentary
-
Book Twenty Frontier Guard Poems 4392
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."
To which of the gods of heaven and earth must I pray to speak once more with my beloved mother? A poem wishing to see his mother again. It is the ninth poem from Shimōsa. After the preceding poem imagined his wife praying to the gods, here the guard himself prays for a reunion with his mother. Ametsushi for ametsuchi is a dialect form.
The author, Ōtomobe no Mayosa, was a guard from Hanyū District in Shimōsa; nothing more is known of him.
The first line, "ametsushi no," joins the gods of heaven and earth.
The second line, "izure no kami o," "which of the gods," searches for the one to pray to.
The third line, "inoraba ka," uses the interrogative ka, resolved by the attributive mu in the last line.
The fourth line, "utsukushi haha ni," means "to my beloved mother."
The closing line, "mata koto towamu," "might I speak with her again?" answers ka with the attributive.
- Author
- Ōtomobe no Mayosa
- Source
- Manyoshu
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Kuniguni no yashiro no kami ni nusa matsuri agakoi sunamu imo ga kanashisa
- Next Poem
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Ōkimi no mikoto ni sareba chichihaha o iwaibe to okite maidekinishi o