大君の命畏み愛しけ
真子が手離り島伝ひ行く
真子が手離り島伝ひ行く
- Roma-ji
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Ōkimi no mikoto kashikomi utsukushike mako ga te hanari shimazutai yuku
- English Translation
-
Our great lord's command
I receive with awe and dread;
from my precious love,
her hands, I am torn away,
and go from isle to isle
- Meaning
- In awe of my lord's command, I leave the hands of my dear love and travel on from island to island.
- Commentary
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Book Twenty Frontier Guard Poems 4414
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."
In awe of my lord's command, I leave my dear love's hands and go from isle to isle: the poem sings of a guard parting and setting out to sea. It is the second poem from Musashi; after the wife's poem comes a poem of parting from the husband's side. Utsukushike is a dialect form of utsukushiki.
The author, Ōtomobe no Otoshi, is recorded as an assistant guard from Chichibu District in Musashi; nothing more is known of him.
The first line, "ōkimi no," recurs throughout the guards' poems.
The second line, "mikoto kashikomi," "in awe of the command," is a set phrase of these poems.
The third line, "utsukushike," "dear," modifies mako.
The fourth line, "mako ga te hanari," uses mako, a loving word for his wife: leaving her hands.
The closing line, "shimazutai yuku," "going from island to island," ends by showing the voyage by sea.
- Author
- Ōtomobe no Otoshi
- Source
- Manyoshu
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