海人の住む浦漕ぐ舟の梶をなみ
世をうみ渡る我ぞ悲しき
世をうみ渡る我ぞ悲しき
- Roma-ji
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Ama no sumu ura kogu fune no kaji o nami yo o umi wataru ware zo kanashiki
- English Translation
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Like a fishing boat
rowing by the fishers' bay
with no oar to steer,
I cross a world of weary seas—
how sorrowful am I
- Meaning
- Like a boat rowing along the bay where the fisherfolk live, with no oar to guide it, I cross this weary sea of a world—how sorrowful I am.
- Commentary
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Book Fifteen Miscellaneous Poems I 1090
Headnote: "At a time when I had no settled husband and was lost in brooding."
The poet says that, like a boat rowing along the fisherfolk's bay without an oar, she crosses this world in weariness, and how sad she is. She likens the helplessness of a woman with no settled husband to rely on to a boat without an oar.
According to the headnote, it was composed when she had no settled husband and was lost in brooding.
The poet, Ono no Komachi, was a woman poet of the early Heian period and one of the Six Poetic Immortals and the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals. Many legends of her beauty survive, and the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu includes her poem "Hana no iro wa utsurinikeri na itazura ni."
The first line, "Ama no sumu," means "where the fisherfolk live."
The second line, "ura kogu fune no," means "of a boat rowing in the bay."
The third line, "kaji o nami," means "since it has no oar," with "o ... mi" expressing cause. The lines up to here form a preface figuring a life with nothing to rely on.
The fourth line, "yo o umi wataru," means "crossing the world in weariness," with "umi" joining sea and "umi," to weary of, followed by "wataru," to cross, in keeping with the boat.
The last line, "ware zo kanashiki," means "how sad am I," with "zo" an emphatic binding particle closed by the attributive "kanashiki."
- Author
- Ono no Komachi
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
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