我妹子が寝くたれ髪を猿沢の
池の玉藻と見るぞ悲しき
池の玉藻と見るぞ悲しき
- Roma-ji
-
Wagimoko ga nekutaregami o Sarusawa no ike no tamamo to miru zo kanashiki
- English Translation
-
My dear one's hair,
tangled once from sleep with me,
in Sarusawa's
pond, as jeweled waterweed,
to see it so, how it grieves.
- Meaning
- To see my dear one's sleep-tangled hair as the jeweled waterweed of Sarusawa Pond, how sad it is.
- Commentary
-
Book Twenty Lament Poems 1289
Headnote: "On seeing that a palace attendant had drowned herself in Sarusawa Pond"
The poet says it is sad to see his dear one's sleep-tangled hair as the waterweed of Sarusawa Pond. The headnote shows it was composed on seeing that a palace attendant had drowned herself in Sarusawa Pond in Nara. The tale of an attendant who threw herself into the pond in grief when the emperor's favor ended appears in the Yamato Monogatari, and this poem is handed down as the one Hitomaro composed then. It conveys the pathos of the attendant's hair, once loved by the emperor, drifting in the water like pondweed.
The author, written as "Hitomaro," is Kakinomoto no Hitomaro. A court poet who served in the reigns of Empress Jitō and Emperor Monmu, he is revered as the Saint of Poetry. He is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.
It appears in episode one hundred fifty of the Yamato Monogatari as a poem mourning the attendant's drowning.
First line, "wagimoko ga," means "my dear one's," the attendant who drowned herself.
Second line, "nekutaregami o," means "her hair, tangled from sleep," recalling her in the days of the emperor's love.
Third line, "Sarusawa no," means "of Sarusawa," the pond south of Kōfukuji in Nara.
Fourth line, "ike no tamamo to," means "as the pond's jeweled waterweed," seeing the hair drifting in the water as weed.
Final line, "miru zo kanashiki," means "it is sad to see," with the binding particle "zo" resolved by "kanashiki," the attributive form of the adjective.
- Author
- Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
- Source
- Shui Wakashu
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Kimi nakute tatsu asagiri wa fujigoromo ike sae kiru zo kanashikarikeru
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Kokoro ni mo aranu ukiyo ni sumizome no koromo no sode no nurenu hi zo naki