神奈備のみむろのきしや崩るらん
竜田の河の水の濁れる
竜田の河の水の濁れる
- Roma-ji
-
Kannabi no mimuro no kishi ya kuzuru ran tatsuta no kawa no mizu no nigoreru
- English Translation
-
Are the banks crumbling
at Mimuro, the sacred hill
of Kannabi?
For the waters of the river
of Tatsuta run so muddy.
- Meaning
- Are the banks of Mimuro at Kannabi crumbling? For the waters of the Tatsuta River are muddied.
- Commentary
-
Book Seven Names of Things 389
Headnote: "Muro no ki (juniper)"
The poet surmises that the waters of the Tatsuta River are muddied because the banks of Mimuro at Kannabi are crumbling. Within a river scene built from a familiar pairing of famed places, the name "muro no ki" given in the headnote is hidden in the run of sounds "mimuro no kishi" in the second line. The headnote names the thing hidden in the poem.
Takamuko no Kusaharu is said to have lived in the early Heian period, but little is known of his life.
In the autumn poems of the Kokinshū there is "Tatsutagawa momijiba nagaru kannabi no mimuro no yama ni shigure furu rashi," and Mount Mimuro at Kannabi and the Tatsuta River have long been sung of together.
First line, "kannabi no," means "of the place where the gods dwell," referring to Mount Mimuro.
Second line, "mimuro no kishi ya," means "the banks of Mimuro," with "ya" a questioning particle. It hides the name "muro no ki."
Third line, "kuzuru ran," means "are they crumbling," with "ya" resolved by the attributive "ran." The poem pauses here, and by inversion the grounds for the surmise are given afterward.
Fourth line, "tatsuta no kawa no," means "of the Tatsuta River." Following the drifting flares of the preceding poem, a river scene is sung of.
Final line, "mizu no nigoreru," means "that the water is muddied," stopping on the attributive form to leave a lingering resonance.
- Author
- Takamuko no Kusaharu
- Source
- Shui Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Kagaribi no tokoro sadamezu mietsuru wa nagaretsutsu nomi takeba narikeri
- Next Poem
-
Ikarii no ishi o kukumite kamikoshi wa kisa no ki ni koso otorazarikere