河の瀬の渦巻く見れば玉藻刈る
散り乱れたる川の舟かも
散り乱れたる川の舟かも
- Roma-ji
-
Kawa no se no uzumaku mireba tamamo karu chirimidaretaru kawa no fune kamo
- English Translation
-
When I watch the shoals
of the river swirl and eddy,
I wonder: are they
boats cutting the jewel-weed
scattered all about the stream?
- Meaning
- Watching the river shoals swirl and eddy, I wonder whether they are the boats cutting jewel-like waterweed, scattered all about the river.
- Commentary
-
Book Eight Miscellaneous Poems I 489
Headnote: "On waterweed"
Watching the shoals of the river swirl, the poet wonders whether boats cutting waterweed are scattered about. The headnote shows it was composed on the topic of waterweed. He likens the disorder of the swirling current to boats gathering waterweed dotted here and there. Following the preceding poem, 488, which saw the sky as a sea, here he sings of the river's flow, and it answers the seaweed-cutting boats of 465 in this book.
The author, written as Hitomaro, is Kakinomoto no Hitomaro. A court poet of the Asuka period, he is revered as the sage of poetry and the foremost poet of the Man'yōshū, and he is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets. The Shūishū includes many Man'yōshū poems under his name.
First line, "kawa no se no," means "of the river shoals."
Second line, "uzumaku mireba," means "when I see them swirl."
Third line, "tamamo karu," means "cutting the jewel-weed," with "tama" a term of praise. Like the "mokaribune" of 465 in this book, it sings of gathering waterweed.
Fourth line, "chirimidaretaru," means "scattered in disarray," with "taru" the attributive form of the continuative auxiliary "tari."
Final line, "kawa no fune kamo," means "might they be river boats," with "kamo" a final particle of question and exclamation.
- Author
- Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
- Source
- Shui Wakashu
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