旅行かば袖こそ濡るれもる山の
雫にのみは負ほせざらなん
雫にのみは負ほせざらなん
- Roma-ji
-
Tabi yukaba sode koso nurure moruyama no shizuku ni nomi wa ōsezaranan
- English Translation
-
When one goes traveling,
the sleeves grow wet; so do not
blame it all upon
the dripping drops that fall
on the Mountain of Moru.
- Meaning
- When one travels, one's sleeves grow wet; do not blame it all on the drops that drip on Moru Mountain.
- Commentary
-
Book Six Parting Poems 341
Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poet says that when one travels the sleeves grow wet, and asks that this not be blamed only on the drops that drip on Moru Mountain, for tears too are to blame. Using as a pretext the dripping drops of Moruyama, whose name means "to leak," the poem expresses the tears of travel without stating them. From here, poems sung along the road continue.
As in Ki no Tsurayuki's autumn poem in the Kokinshū, "Shiratsuyu mo shigure mo itaku moruyama wa shitaba nokorazu irozukinikeri," Moruyama has been a famed place sung of with a play on "moru," to leak.
First line, "tabi yukaba," means "when one travels."
Second line, "sode koso nurure," means "the sleeves grow wet," with "koso" resolved by the perfective "nurure." The poem pauses here.
Third line, "moruyama no," plays on Moruyama, a famed place in Ōmi, and "moru," for drops to leak.
Fourth line, "shizuku ni nomi wa," means "on the drops alone."
Final line, "ōsezaranan," means "I wish you would not blame," with "nan" a particle expressing a wish directed at another.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Shui Wakashu
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