荒し男のいをさ手挟み向ひ立ち
かなるましづみ出でてと我が来る
かなるましづみ出でてと我が来る
- Roma-ji
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Arashio no iosa tabasami mukaitachi kanaru mashizumi idete to aga kuru
- English Translation
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Like a rugged man
with arrows clasped in his hand
standing to the mark,
in a lull of the clamor
I slipped out and came away
- Meaning
- Like a rough warrior standing to face the target with arrows in hand, I slipped out in a moment's lull of the clamor and came away.
- Commentary
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Book Twenty Frontier Guard Poems 4430
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 a moment's lull of the clamor I slipped out and came away: the poem sings of leaving his family as they grieved at parting. The left note says it is the sixth of the eight guard poems of former years that Iware no Morokimi copied and sent to Yakamochi. The preface of the first three lines is obscure; it is taken to lead to kanaru in the fourth, but views differ on the connection.
The author's name has not come down. It is thought to be by a guard himself.
The first line, "arashio no," means "of a rough, brave man."
The second line, "iosa tabasami," is thought to mean "holding arrows clasped in the hand."
The third line, "mukaitachi," "standing to face the mark": the first three lines are read as a preface to the fourth.
The fourth line, "kanaru mashizumi," is thought to mean "while the clamor quiets," pointing to a lull in the household's grieving.
The closing line, "idete to aga kuru," "I came away," ends with the haste of his departure.
- Source
- Manyoshu
- Prev Poem
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Umaya naru nawa tatsu koma no okuru gae imo ga iishi o okite kanashi mo
- Next Poem
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Sasa ga ha no sayagu shimoyo ni nanae karu koromo ni maseru koro ga hada wa mo