あしひきの山下水の木隠れて
たぎつ心をせきぞかねつる
たぎつ心をせきぞかねつる
- Roma-ji
-
Ashihiki no yamashitamizu no kogakurete tagitsu kokoro o seki zo kanetsuru
- English Translation
-
Like the hidden stream
that flows beneath the mountain,
hidden under trees,
this heart of mine that rushes on
I cannot hold back at all
- Meaning
- Like the stream beneath the mountain that flows hidden among the trees, my heart surges in secret, and I cannot hold it back.
- Commentary
-
Book Twelve Love Poems IV 860
Headnote: "Sent to a woman."
The poet says that like the mountain stream flowing hidden under the trees, he cannot hold back his surging heart. Overlapping a secret love with water flowing in the shade of trees, he voices feelings too strong to restrain.
According to the headnote, the poem was sent to a woman. The next poem, 861, is the reply, and the two form an exchange. 823 in this book also sings of "yamashitamizu."
The poet, listed as "Yoshi no Ason," was Minamoto no Yoshi. He is known as one who was demoted along with Sugawara no Michizane in the Shōtai Incident of the fourth year of Shōtai (901).
The first line, "Ashihiki no," is a pillow word modifying "yama," mountain.
The second line, "yamashitamizu no," means "of the stream flowing unseen beneath the mountain trees." It is the same image as "yamashitamizu ni," the fourth line of 823 in this book.
The third line, "kogakurete," means "hidden among the trees," a figure for a secret love. The first three lines form a preface leading into "tagitsu" in the fourth line. The next poem, 861, answers by opening with "kogakurete."
The fourth line, "tagitsu kokoro o," means "my surging heart," layering it with water rushing violently.
The last line, "seki zo kanetsuru," means "I cannot dam it," "seki," to dam, being a word associated with water. "Zo" is an emphatic binding particle closed by the attributive "tsuru."
- Author
- Minamoto no Yoshi
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Ausaka no seki to moraruru ware nareba aumi chōran kata mo shirarezu
- Next Poem
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Kogakurete tagitsu yamamizu izure ka wa me ni shimo miyuru oto ni koso kike