浪分けて見るよしもがなわたつみの
底のみるめも紅葉散るやと
底のみるめも紅葉散るやと
- Roma-ji
-
Nami wakete miru yoshi mo gana watatsumi no soko no mirume mo momiji chiru ya to
- English Translation
-
Would there were a way
to part the waves and look—
to see if seaweed
on the bottom of the ocean
also turns and scatters down
- Meaning
- Would there were some way to part the waves and look, to see whether the seaweed on the floor of the sea also turns color and scatters.
- Commentary
-
Book Seven Autumn Poems III 417
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
The poet wishes there were a way to part the waves and see whether the seaweed on the floor of the sea also turns color and scatters. Extending the mind from the leaves on land, it imagines autumn at the bottom of the sea, which cannot be seen.
Where the poems before it sang of leaves flowing down rivers, this one turns its eye to the depths of the sea. The next poem sings of the waves of a bay with autumn leaves, and 419 of the sea god with autumn leaves.
The poet, Fun'ya no Asayasu, was a son of Fun'ya no Yasuhide and served as a senior secretary of the Ōtoneri office, among other posts. His "shiratsuyu ni kaze no fukishiku aki no no wa" is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
The first line, "Nami wakete," means "parting the waves."
In the second line, "yoshi" means a means and "mo gana" is a particle of wishing: "would there were a way to see." The poem pauses here.
The third line, "watatsumi no," means "of the sea." 419 of this book also opens with "watatsumi no."
In the fourth line, "mirume" is a pivot word meaning both "mirume," a seaweed, and "mirume," a chance to see. It echoes "miru," to see, in the second line.
The last line, "momiji chiru ya to," means "whether it too turns and scatters," in inversion with the second line, giving afterward what the poet wishes to see.
- Author
- Fun'ya no Asayasu
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Tatsutagawa aki wa mizu naku asenanan akanu momiji no nagarureba oshi
- Next Poem
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Ko no ha chiru ura ni nami tatsu aki nareba momiji ni hana mo sakimagaikeri