宇多の野はみみなし山か呼子鳥
呼ぶ声にだに答へざるらん
呼ぶ声にだに答へざるらん
- Roma-ji
-
Uda no no wa miminashiyama ka yobukodori yobu koe ni dani kotaezaruran
- English Translation
-
Is Uda Moor then
Mount Miminashi, the earless?
Like the calling bird
I call to you, yet why
do you not answer even that
- Meaning
- Is Uda Moor perhaps Mount Miminashi, the mountain without ears? Why do you not answer even the voice that calls to you like the calling bird?
- Commentary
-
Book Fourteen Love Poems VI 1034
Headnote: "Composed when he sent a letter to someone in service at the Uda Palace and received no reply."
The poet asks whether Uda Moor is Mount Miminashi, and why no answer comes even to the voice that calls like the calling bird. Likening the Uda Palace to Uda Moor and the one who will not reply to earless Mount Miminashi, he reproaches her for not answering his letter.
According to the headnote, he sent a letter to someone serving at the Uda Palace but received no reply; the Fifth Princess's reply is placed in the next poem, 1035.
The poet is listed as anonymous, and the composer's name has not come down to us.
The first line, "Uda no no wa," means "Uda Moor" in Yamashiro, onto which the Uda Palace of the headnote is cast.
The second line, "miminashiyama ka," means "is it Mount Miminashi," with "miminashi" joining the mountain in Yamato and having no ears. The poem pauses here.
The third line, "yobukodori," is the calling bird, whose cry sounds like someone calling, standing for the poet himself. It appears again in the third line of the next poem.
The fourth line, "yobu koe ni dani," means "even to the calling voice," repeating the "yobu," to call, of "yobukodori" in the third line.
The last line, "kotaezaruran," means "why do you not answer," with "ran" an auxiliary conjecturing a cause.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Tatsutagawa tachinaba kimi ga na o oshimi iwase no mori no iwaji to zo omou
- Next Poem
-
Miminashi no yama narazu tomo yobukodori nani ka wa kikan toki naranu ne o