皆人にふみ見せけりな水無瀬川
その渡りこそまづは浅けれ
その渡りこそまづは浅けれ
- Roma-ji
-
Minahito ni fumi misekeri na Minasegawa sono watari koso mazu wa asakere
- English Translation
-
To everyone, then,
you showed the letter I set down—
Minase River,
it is at that very ford
that first the waters run shallow
- Meaning
- So you showed my letter to everyone. Like the River Minase, it is right at that crossing that the water first runs shallow—shallow as your heart.
- Commentary
-
Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems III 1218
Headnote: "A man who had sent letters to someone heard that the person had shown them to others, and sent this."
The poet says that the other has shown his letter to everyone, and that it is at the ford of the Minase River that the water first runs shallow. Hearing that his letter was shown about, he likens the other's shallow heart to the shallow ford of the "waterless" Minase.
According to the headnote, a man who had sent a letter to someone heard that it had been shown to others, and sent this.
The poet is anonymous and the name is not known.
The first line, "Minahito ni," means "to everyone," echoing "Minase" in the third line.
The second line, "fumi misekeri na," is a pivot word on "fumi," both letter and treading: you showed my letter, and one treads across the river. "Na" is exclamatory, and the poem pauses here.
The third line, "Minasegawa," is the Minase River in Settsu, whose name contains "waterless," leading to shallowness.
The fourth line, "sono watari koso," means "that very crossing," with "koso" an emphatic binding particle.
The last line, "mazu wa asakere," means "is the first to run shallow," closing the "koso" with the realis "asakere." It figures the shallowness of the other's heart.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Takitsuse no hayakaranu o zo uramitsuru mizu tomo oto ni kikan to omoeba
- Next Poem
-
Toshi fureba waga kurokami mo Shirakawa no mizuhakumu made oinikeru kana