道知らでやみやはしなぬ逢坂の
関のあなたはうみといふなり
関のあなたはうみといふなり
- Roma-ji
-
Michi shirade yami ya wa shinanu ausaka no seki no anata wa umi to iu nari
- English Translation
-
Not knowing the road,
might it not all simply end?
Beyond the barrier
of Meeting Hill, they say,
there lies only the sea
- Meaning
- Not knowing the way, could it not simply end here? They say that beyond the barrier of Ōsaka lies the sea—a sea of sorrow.
- Commentary
-
Book Eleven Love Poems III 786
Headnote: "Reply."
In this reply the poet says it might as well end with him not knowing the way, since beyond the Ōsaka Barrier lies the sea. She gently refuses to meet him, saying that beyond the barrier there is only the lake's "sea," that is, sorrow.
It is the reply to the preceding poem, 785.
The poet, listed as "Shimotsuke," was a lady-in-waiting known by that name, and little is known of her life.
The first line, "Michi shirade," means "not knowing the road," taking up "shirube nakute mo" in the second line of the preceding poem.
The second line, "yami ya wa shinanu," means "might it not simply end," with "ya wa" a rhetorical question carrying the sense that it may as well end. The poem pauses here.
The third line, "ausaka no," means "of Ōsaka" on the border of Yamashiro and Ōmi, also sung in 700, the opening poem of this book.
The fourth line, "seki no anata wa," means "beyond the barrier," set against "seki no konata wa" in the fourth line of the preceding poem.
In the last line, "umi to iu nari," "umi" is a pivot word meaning both "umi," the sea of Ōmi's lake, and "umi," sorrow. "Nari" expresses hearsay.
- Author
- Shimotsuke
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
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Ōmiji o shirube nakute mo miteshi gana seki no konata wa wabishikarikeri
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Tsurenaki o omoishinobu no sanekazura hate wa kuru o mo itou narikeri