宮造る飛騨の匠の手斧音
ほとほとしかる目をも見しかな
ほとほとしかる目をも見しかな
- Roma-ji
-
Miya tsukuru Hida no takumi no teono oto hotohotoshikaru me o mo mishi kana
- English Translation
-
Like the adze that sounds,
hoto hoto, in the hands
of Hida's builders
raising a palace, how close,
hoto hoto, I came to harm!
- Meaning
- Like the hoto hoto of the adzes of the Hida carpenters building a palace, so hoto hoto, so very nearly, did I come to grief.
- Commentary
-
Book Nineteen Miscellaneous Love Poems 1226
Headnote: "Kunimochi had been secretly visiting a woman whom Sadamori was keeping; when Sadamori arrived, she in a panic hid him in the walled room and let him out by the back door, and the next morning he sent this"
The poet says that, like the sound of the adzes of the Hida carpenters building a palace, hoto hoto, he very nearly came to grief. The headnote shows that Kunimochi was secretly visiting a woman whom Sadamori kept, and when Sadamori arrived she hastily hid him in the walled storeroom and let him slip out by the back door, and the next morning he sent this. Pivoting on "hotohoto," the sound of an adze shaving wood and "very nearly," he sings with humor of the cold sweat of a narrow escape.
The author, Kunimochi, is a person of whom little is known, and the same is true of Sadamori in the headnote.
First line, "miya tsukuru," means "building a palace."
Second line, "Hida no takumi no," means "of the Hida carpenters," builders from Hida Province who came to the capital to work on palaces and were known for their skill.
Third line, "teono oto," means "the sound of the adze" shaving wood. Up to here the lines form a preface leading to "hotohoto" in the fourth line.
Fourth line, "hotohotoshikaru," is a pivot word: "hotohoto" is the sound of the adze and "very nearly." It comes to mean "perilous."
Final line, "me o mo mishi kana," means "such a plight I have met," with "shi" the attributive form of the past auxiliary "ki" and "kana" exclamatory.
- Author
- Kunimochi
- Source
- Shui Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Shinobitsutsu yoru koso kishika karakoromo hitoya mimu to wa omowazarishi o
- Next Poem
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Ari tote mo ikuyo ka wa furu Karakuni no tora fusu nobe ni mi o mo nageten