Sasanami no Shiga no tekora ga makarinishi kawase no michi o mireba kanashi mo - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

ささなみの志賀の手児らがまかりにし
川瀬の道を見れば悲しも

Roma-ji: Sasanami no Shiga no tekora ga makarinishi kawase no michi o mireba kanashi mo
English Translation: Sasanami's Shiga,
the maiden there has gone away,
when I see the path
by the river shallows where
she went, how sad it is.
Meaning: When I see the path along the river shallows where the maiden of Shiga by the rippling waves departed this world, how sad it is.
Commentary: Book Twenty Lament Poems 1315

Headnote: "Composed after the palace attendant of Kibitsu had died"
The poet says that seeing the path along the river shallows where the maiden of Shiga departed this world is sad. The headnote shows it was composed after the palace attendant of Kibitsu died. Seeing the path along the shallows down which the attendant was carried to her burial, he mourns a maiden who left the world young. It shares the mourning of a palace attendant with 1289 in this book, the poem of the attendant at Sarusawa Pond.
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.
A similar poem appears in Book Two of the Man'yōshū as an envoy to Hitomaro's poem lamenting the death of the Kibitsu attendant, with the final line "mireba sabushi mo."

First line, "sasanami no," is a pillow word for Shiga in Ōmi.
Second line, "Shiga no tekora ga," means "the maiden of Shiga," the attendant of Kibitsu, with "ra" a suffix of familiarity.
Third line, "makarinishi," means "who has departed," "makaru" being a veiled word for dying.
Fourth line, "kawase no michi o," means "the path by the river shallows," the path of the funeral.
Final line, "mireba kanashi mo," means "seeing it, how sad," with "mo" an exclamatory final particle.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Source: Shui Wakashu
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