我が門の片山椿まこと汝れ
我が手触れなな土に落ちもかも
我が手触れなな土に落ちもかも
- Roma-ji
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Waga kado no katayamatsubaki makoto nare waga te furenana tsuchi ni ochimo kamo
- English Translation
-
By my own gateway
the camellia on the slope,
truly will you, dear,
before my hand has touched you,
fall to the ground and be lost?
- Meaning
- Camellia on the hillside by my gate, will you truly fall to the earth before my hand has ever touched you?
- Commentary
-
Book Twenty Frontier Guard Poems 4418
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."
Camellia on the slope by my gate, will you truly fall before my hand has touched you? The poem fears that while he is away the girl he loves may become another's. It is the sixth poem from Musashi. The camellia is taken to stand for the girl he cares for, and the poem voices his worry that departure will keep him from winning her. Furenana is an eastern way of saying "without touching," and ochimo is a dialect form of ochimu.
The author, Mononobe no Hirotari, is recorded as a regular guard from Ebara District in Musashi; nothing more is known of him.
The first line, "waga kado no," "by my gate," names a place close at hand.
The second line, "katayamatsubaki," a camellia on a hillside slope, stands for the girl he loves.
The third line, "makoto nare," "truly, you," addresses the camellia.
The fourth line, "waga te furenana," means "before my hand touches you."
The closing line, "tsuchi ni ochimo kamo," "will you fall to the ground?" ends with fear that she will become another's.
- Author
- Mononobe no Hirotari
- Source
- Manyoshu
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Akagoma o yamano ni hagashi torikanite Tama no yokoyama kashi yu ka yaramu
- Next Poem
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Iwaro ni wa ashifu takedomo sumiyoke o Tsukushi ni itarite kofushike mowamo