飛鳥川淵瀬に変はる心とは
みなかみしもの人も言ふめり
みなかみしもの人も言ふめり
- Roma-ji
-
Asukagawa fuchise ni kawaru kokoro to wa minakami shimo no hito mo iu meri
- English Translation
-
Like Asuka's stream,
a heart that shifts from deeps to shoals—
so, it seems, they say,
all the people high and low,
upriver and down alike
- Meaning
- That yours is a heart that shifts like the deeps and shallows of the Asuka River—so, it seems, say all the people up and down the stream, high and low alike.
- Commentary
-
Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems IV 1258
Headnote: "When a man said, 'Ask as many people as you like—do I have a fickle heart?'"
The poet says that people high and low all seem to say his is a heart that shifts like the Asuka River's deeps and shoals. To a man who brazenly asks whether he has a fickle heart, she retorts that everyone knows how changeable he is.
According to the headnote, a man told her to ask anyone she liked whether he had a fickle heart, and Ise composed this.
The poet, Ise, was a daughter of Fujiwara no Tsugukage, Governor of Ise, and served Fujiwara no Onshi, consort of Emperor Uda. She received the emperor's favor and later bore Nakatsukasa to Prince Atsuyoshi. One of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals, she is represented in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu by "Naniwagata mijikaki ashi no fushi no ma mo."
The first line, "Asukagawa," is the Asuka River in Yamato, a famous poetic place standing for changeability because its deeps and shallows shift so often. Poem 1232 of Book Seventeen opens with the same first line, there singing of the rise and fall of fortune.
The second line, "fuchise ni kawaru," means "changing as deeps turn to shallows."
The third line, "kokoro to wa," means "that such is the heart," meaning the man's heart.
The fourth line, "minakami shimo no," is a pivot word on "minakami," both the upper reaches of a river and "all, high": people upstream and downstream, and people of every rank. "Upper reaches" and "down" are associated words with the Asuka River.
The last line, "hito mo iu meri," means "people seem to say," with "meri" conjecture. It answers "ask many people" in the headnote.
- Author
- Ise
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Hitome dani mienu yamaji ni tatsu kumo o tare sumigama no kemuri to iuran
- Next Poem
-
Ima komu to iishi bakari o inochi nite matsu ni kenubeshi sakusame no toji