難波潟刈りつむ葦の葦筒の
一重も君を我や隔つる
一重も君を我や隔つる
- Roma-ji
-
Naniwagata karitsumu ashi no ashizutsu no hitoe mo kimi o ware ya hedatsuru
- English Translation
-
On Naniwa's strand
they cut and heap the reeds—
not even as much
as the reed's thin inner skin
would I keep you at a distance
- Meaning
- Not even by so much as the thin skin inside the reeds they cut and heap on the strand at Naniwa would I ever hold you apart from me.
- Commentary
-
Book Ten Love Poems II 625
Headnote: "Sent in answer to a woman who had replied that he had a heart that held her at a distance."
The poet says that not even by the thinness of the membrane inside the reeds cut and heaped at Naniwa would he hold her apart. To a woman who accuses him of keeping his heart distant, he denies it altogether.
According to the headnote, he sent it in answer to a woman who had replied that he held her at a distance in his heart.
The poet, called "Kanesuke Ason," is Fujiwara no Kanesuke. A son of Fujiwara no Toshimoto, he served as Middle Counselor and was known as the Tsutsumi Middle Counselor. He is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals, and his "Mika no hara wakite nagaruru Izumigawa" is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
The first line, "Naniwagata," is a poetic place in Settsu famed for its reeds.
The second line, "karitsumu ashi no," means "of the reeds cut and heaped."
The third line, "ashizutsu no," is the thin membrane inside a reed stem. The first three lines form a preface leading, through the sense of thinness, to "hitoe" in the fourth line.
The fourth line, "hitoe mo kimi o," means "not even by a single thin layer, you."
The last line, "ware ya hedatsuru," means "would I hold you apart?" with "ya" a rhetorical particle closing with the attributive "hedatsuru," a kakarimusubi pattern.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Kanesuke
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
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Oto ni nomi kikikoshi Miwa no yama yori mo sugi no kazu o ba ware zo mienishi
- Next Poem
-
Waga goto ya kimi mo kouran shiratsuyu no okite mo nete mo sode zo kawakanu