最上川深きにもあへずいな舟の
心軽くもかへるなるかな
心軽くもかへるなるかな
- Roma-ji
-
Mogamigawa fukaki ni mo aezu inafune no kokoro karoku mo kaeru naru kana
- English Translation
-
The Mogami's depths
are more than it can bear—
so the rice boat
with so light a heart, it seems,
turns and goes back home
- Meaning
- Like a rice boat on the Mogami that cannot bear its depths and turns back, your heart, it seems, so lightly turns away from my deep love.
- Commentary
-
Book Twelve Love Poems IV 839
Headnote: "Reply."
The poet says that unable to bear the depths of the Mogami, the rice boat lightheartedly turns back. To the woman who reproached his love as shallow, he retorts that his feelings are as deep as the Mogami, and it is she who lightly turns away, unable to bear them.
It is the reply to the preceding poem, 838, answering "asakereba" with "fukaki," taking up "inafune" and "kaeru" as they are, and naming the Mogami of the Kokin Wakashū poem the woman had quoted.
The poet, called "the Sanjō Minister of the Right," was Fujiwara no Sadakata. A son of Palace Minister Fujiwara no Takafuji, he rose to Minister of the Right. He was so called because his residence stood on Sanjō, and he is also known as a patron of poets such as Ki no Tsurayuki and Ōshikōchi no Mitsune.
The first line, "Mogamigawa," names the Mogami River in Dewa, a poetic place associated with rice boats. It borrows the opening line of the Kokin Wakashū Eastern poem as it is.
The second line, "fukaki ni mo aezu," means "unable to bear even the depths," a hypermetric line of eight syllables. Against "asakereba" in the preceding poem, it shows the depth of his own love.
The third line, "inafune no," means "the rice boat," taking up "tomaru inafune," the fourth line of the preceding poem.
The fourth line, "kokoro karoku mo," means "with so light a heart," contrasting with "fukaki," deep, in the second line.
The last line, "kaeru naru kana," means "it turns back, it seems," taking up "kaeru narubeshi," the last line of the preceding poem. "Kana" expresses emotion.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Sadakata
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Nagareyoru sese no shiranami asakereba tomaru inafune kaeru narubeshi
- Next Poem
-
Hanasusuki ho ni izuru koto mo naki mono o mataki fukinuru aki no kaze kana