足柄の御坂に立して袖振らば
家なる妹はさやに見もかも
家なる妹はさやに見もかも
- Roma-ji
-
Ashigara no misaka ni tashite sode furaba iwa naru imo wa saya ni mimo kamo
- English Translation
-
On Ashigara's
sacred pass if I should stand
and wave my sleeves high,
would my wife at home, I wonder,
see it clearly where she waits?
- Meaning
- If I stand on the pass of Ashigara and wave my sleeves, will my wife at home see me clearly?
- Commentary
-
Book Twenty Frontier Guard Poems 4423
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."
If I stand on Ashigara's pass and wave my sleeves, will my wife at home see me clearly? The poem thinks of his wife at the pass where he leaves his home region. It is the eleventh poem from Musashi, and the next poem is thought to be by this author's wife. Ashigara Pass marks the edge of the eastern provinces, and he wishes the parting gesture of waving his sleeves there could reach his distant wife. Tashite for tachite and mimo for mimu are dialect forms.
The author, Fujiwarabe no Tomomaro, is recorded as a regular guard from Sakitama District in Musashi; nothing more is known of him.
The first line, "Ashigara no," names Mount Ashigara, as two poems before.
The second line, "misaka ni tashite," means "standing on the pass of Ashigara."
The third line, "sode furaba," "if I wave my sleeves," names the gesture of regret at parting.
The fourth line, "iwa naru imo wa," means "my wife at home."
The closing line, "saya ni mimo kamo," "will she see it clearly?" ends hoping it reaches her. In the next poem the wife answers, "I would see you clearly."
- Author
- Fujiwarabe no Tomomaro
- Source
- Manyoshu
- Prev Poem
-
Waga sena o Tsukushi e yarite utsukushimi obi wa tokanana aya ni kamo nemo
- Next Poem
-
Irobukaku sena ga koromo wa somemashi o misaka tabaraba masayaka ni mimu