筑波嶺の峰より落つるみなの川
恋ぞつもりて淵となりける
恋ぞつもりて淵となりける
- Roma-ji
-
Tsukubane no mine yori otsuru minanogawa koi zo tsumorite fuchi to narikeru
- English Translation
-
From Tsukuba's peak
the Minano River falls,
gathering below—
so too my love has mounted
and become a deep, still pool
- Meaning
- Like the Minano River, falling from the peak of Mount Tsukuba and gathering into a deep pool, my love has piled up little by little until it has become as deep as that pool.
- Commentary
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Book Eleven Love Poems III 776
Headnote: "Sent to the Princess of the Tsuridono."
The poet says that as the Minano River falling from Tsukuba's peak becomes a deep pool, his love has built up and deepened. He likens his feelings, which grew gradually until they were deep, to a river whose small streams gather into a deep pool.
According to the headnote, the poem was sent to the Princess of the Tsuridono. She was Princess Suishi, a daughter of Emperor Kōkō, who later became a consort of the retired emperor Yōzei. The poem is also included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu, where its last line reads "fuchi to narinuru."
The poet, listed as "a poem by Retired Emperor Yōzei," was Emperor Yōzei. A son of Emperor Seiwa, he took the throne at nine and abdicated at seventeen. "Gyosei" means a poem composed by an emperor or retired emperor.
The first line, "Tsukubane no," means "of Mount Tsukuba" in Hitachi Province.
The second line, "mine yori otsuru," means "falling from the peak."
The third line, "minanogawa," is a river flowing from Mount Tsukuba, and the lines up to here form a preface likening the deepening of love in the lines that follow.
The fourth line, "koi zo tsumorite," means "my love piling up," with "zo" an emphatic particle.
The last line, "fuchi to narikeru," means "has become a deep pool," closing with the attributive "keru" in answer to "zo" in the fourth line, a kakarimusubi pattern. Where the Asuka River poems, 750 to 752 in this book, sing of pools turning into shallows, here the flow gathers into a pool.
- Author
- Emperor Yōzei
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
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Kakurenu ni sumu oshidori no koe taezu nakedo kai naki mono ni zo arikeru
- Next Poem
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Karigane no kumoi haruka ni kikoeshi wa ima wa kagiri no koe ni zo arikeru