杣人は宮木ひくらしあしひきの
山の山彦声とよむなり
山の山彦声とよむなり
- Roma-ji
-
Somabito wa miyaki hiku rashi ashihiki no yama no yamabiko koe toyomu nari
- English Translation
-
The woodcutters, it seems,
are hauling timbers for the palace;
in the rugged hills
the echoes of the mountain
are resounding with their cries.
- Meaning
- The woodcutters seem to be hauling timber for the palace; the mountain echoes ring out with their voices.
- Commentary
-
Book Seven Names of Things 371
Headnote: "Higurashi (evening cicada)"
Hearing the mountain echoes ring out, the poet surmises that the woodcutters are hauling timber for building a palace. Within this scene of calls and echoes resounding in the mountains, the name "higurashi" given in the headnote is hidden in the run of sounds "miyaki hiku rashi" in the second line. The headnote names the thing hidden in the poem.
The author, written as Tsurayuki, is Ki no Tsurayuki. The leading compiler of the Kokinshū, he wrote its Kana Preface and the Tosa Diary, and he is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.
First line, "somabito wa," means "the woodcutters who fell trees in the mountains."
Second line, "miyaki hiku rashi," means "seem to be hauling palace timber," with "rashi" a grounded inference. "Hiku rashi" hides the name "higurashi." The poem pauses here. Following "omoikurashi" in the preceding poem, it is again a poem on the evening cicada.
Third line, "ashihiki no," is a pillow word for mountains.
Fourth line, "yama no yamabiko," means "the mountain echoes," repeating "yama" to strengthen the resonance.
Final line, "koe toyomu nari," means "the voices seem to resound," with "nari" an auxiliary of inference from sound. It gives here the grounds for "rashi" in the second line.
- Author
- Ki no Tsurayuki
- Source
- Shui Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Ima komu to iite wakareshi ashita yori omoikurashi no ne o nomi zo naku
- Next Poem
-
Matsu no ne wa aki no shirabe ni kikoyu nari takaku seme agete tori zo hiku rashi