世をうみて我が貸す糸は七夕の
涙の玉の緒とやなるらん
涙の玉の緒とやなるらん
- Roma-ji
-
Yo o umite waga kasu ito wa tanabata no namida no tama no o to ya naruran
- English Translation
-
Weary of the world,
the thread I spin and lend you,
Weaver Star, will it
be the cord that strings the gems
of the tears you shed tonight?
- Meaning
- The thread I spin, weary of the world, and lend to the Weaver Star: will it become the cord that strings the jewels of the tears she weeps at parting?
- Commentary
-
Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Autumn Poems 1087
Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poet wonders whether the thread she spins while weary of the world and offers at Tanabata will become the cord on which the Weaver strings the jewels of her tears of parting. Set against the custom of offering threads at Tanabata, it lays the poet's own sorrow at the world over the Weaver's tears at parting.
First line, "yo o umite," turns on the pivot word "umi," joining "umu," to weary of the world, and "umu," to spin thread, so that it means "spinning thread while weary of the world."
Second line, "waga kasu ito wa," means "the thread I lend," presenting the thread offered at Tanabata as lent to the Weaver. It echoes the fourth line of the opening poem, 1082, "ito kaku bakari," in singing of threads offered at Tanabata. The expression of lending something at Tanabata is also seen in the final lines of 1088 in this book, "nao ya kasamashi," and of 1091, "koromo kasu yo wa."
Third line, "tanabata no," means "of the Weaver Star."
Fourth line, "namida no tama no," likens the Weaver's tears of parting to jewels.
Final line, "o to ya naruran," means "will it become the cord that strings the jewels," with "ya" a questioning binding particle resolved by "ran," the attributive form of the auxiliary of present conjecture. "Thread," "jewel," and "cord" form associated words.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Shui Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Tanabata no urayamashiki ni Amanogawa koyoi bakari wa ori ya tatamashi
- Next Poem
-
Amanogawa kawabe suzushiki tanabata ni ōgi no kaze o nao ya kasamashi