唐衣裾に取り付き泣く子らを
置きてぞ来のや母なしにして
置きてぞ来のや母なしにして
- Roma-ji
-
Karakoromu suso ni toritsuki naku kora o okite zo kino ya omo nashi ni shite
- English Translation
-
Clinging to the hem
of my robe of foreign cut
the children wept;
and I left them and came away,
though they have no mother now
- Meaning
- My children clung to the hem of my robe and wept, and I left them and came away, though they have no mother.
- Commentary
-
Book Twenty Frontier Guard Poems 4401
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."
I left my children clinging to my hem and weeping, though they have no mother: the poem sings of piercing grief for the children left behind. According to the left note, the escort officer of Shinano fell ill on the road and could not come; twelve poems were presented on the twenty-second day of the second month, and the clumsy ones were left out. This is the first. Revealing in the last line that the children have no mother deepens the sorrow. Karakoromu for karakoromo and kino for kinu are dialect forms.
The author, Osada no Toneri no Ōshima, is recorded as a kuni no miyatsuko guard from Chiisagata District in Shinano; nothing more is known of him.
The first line, "karakoromu," a robe of continental cut, is used here as an expression leading to "hem."
The second line, "suso ni toritsuki," "clinging to the hem," pictures children refusing to let him go.
The third line, "naku kora o," means "the weeping children."
The fourth line, "okite zo kino ya," resolved by zo, strengthens his regret: I have left them and come. The poem pauses here.
The closing line, "omo nashi ni shite," is inverted, revealing at the end that they have no mother.
- Author
- Osada no Toneri no Ōshima
- Source
- Manyoshu
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