寄る潮のみちくる空もおもほえず
あふことなみに帰ると思へば
あふことなみに帰ると思へば
- Roma-ji
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Yoru shio no michikuru sora mo omooezu au koto nami ni kaeru to omoeba
- English Translation
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Like the tide flowing in,
I hardly feel I tread the road,
nor know where I am—
with no chance to meet, I think,
I turn back like the waves
- Meaning
- Like the tide that comes in, I hardly feel I am on the road at all—when I think that, with no chance to meet you, I am turning back like the waves.
- Commentary
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Book Thirteen Love Poems V 965
Headnote: "Sent from the road when he went to a woman's house and was always sent home without meeting her."
The poet says that, like the incoming tide, he hardly feels he is on the road, for he thinks that with no chance to meet her he is turning back like the waves. He overlays the emptiness of the road home after failing to meet her with the tide that flows in and ebbs and the waves that come and go.
According to the headnote, he went to a woman's house but was always sent home without meeting her, and sent this from the road back. Linking sea words, tide, flowing in, waves and returning, he laments a self that can only turn back.
The poet is listed as anonymous, and the composer's name has not come down to us.
The first line, "Yoru shio no," means "of the tide coming in," leading to "michi" in the second line.
The second line, "michikuru sora mo," means "the feeling of coming along the road," with "michi" joining the tide's flowing in and the road home. "Sora" means feeling, state of mind.
The third line, "omooezu," means "I do not feel," and the poem pauses here, inverted with what follows.
The fourth line, "au koto nami ni," means "having no chance to meet," with "nami" joining "nami," being without, and "nami," waves.
The last line, "kaeru to omoeba," means "when I think I am going back," overlaying the returning waves and his own return.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
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