宮の滝むべも名に負ひて聞こえけり
落つる白泡の玉と響けば
落つる白泡の玉と響けば
- Roma-ji
-
Miya no taki mube mo na ni oite kikoekeri otsuru shiraawa no tama to hibikeba
- English Translation
-
The Palace Falls—
how rightly it bears its name,
the fame I heard of:
the white foam as it tumbles
rings out like jewels
- Meaning
- The Palace Falls is famed, I see, and rightly so for its name, for the white foam tumbling down rings out like jewels.
- Commentary
-
Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems III 1237
Headnote: "Composed in attendance when the Cloistered Emperor viewed the Yoshino waterfall."
The emperor says that the Palace Falls is rightly famed as its name suggests, since its falling white foam rings out like jewels. Worthy of the name "palace," the foam echoes like jewels, and he praises a fall that recalls the gems adorning a palace.
Like the preceding poem, it comes from the occasion when Cloistered Emperor Uda viewed the Yoshino waterfall, and this one is the emperor's own.
The poet, given as "the Cloistered Emperor's own poem," is Emperor Uda. A son of Emperor Kōkō, he took the tonsure after abdicating and became Cloistered Emperor. He supported the flourishing of waka that led to the Kokinshu.
The first line, "Miya no taki," is the Miyataki of Yoshino, a place of rushing rapids on the Yoshino River.
The second line, "mube mo na ni oite," means "rightly bearing its name," with an extra syllable.
The third line, "kikoekeri," means "is famed, I see," with "keri" for realization. The poem pauses here.
The fourth line, "otsuru shiraawa no," means "the white foam that tumbles," with an extra syllable. Like "kuzure otsuru yuki" in the last line of the preceding poem, it sees the falling water as something white.
The last line, "tama to hibikeba," means "since it rings like jewels," bringing in jewels for the sake of "palace," and giving the reason through inversion.
- Author
- Emperor Uda
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Itsu no ma ni furitsumoruran Miyoshino no yama no kai yori kuzure otsuru yuki
- Next Poem
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Imasara ni ware wa kaeraji taki mitsutsu yobedo kikazu to towaba kotae yo