世の中を何にたとへむ朝ぼらけ
漕ぎゆく舟の跡の白波
漕ぎゆく舟の跡の白波
- Roma-ji
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Yo no naka o nani ni tatoemu asaborake kogiyuku fune no ato no shiranami
- English Translation
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This world of ours,
to what shall I compare it?
In the dawning light,
to a boat that rows away,
the white waves in its wake.
- Meaning
- To what shall I compare this world? To the white waves in the wake of a boat rowing away in the faint light of dawn.
- Commentary
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Book Twenty Lament Poems 1327
Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poet asks to what the world can be compared, and answers: the white waves in the wake of a boat rowing away at dawn. Over the scene of a dawning sea where the white waves of a departing boat's wake rise and fade, he lays the fleetingness of a world that passes leaving no trace. It has long been famous as a poem of impermanence and was widely recited in later ages.
The author, Novice Mansei, was called Kasa no Maro as a layman and, after taking vows, oversaw the building of the Kanzeonji temple in Tsukushi. At Dazaifu he exchanged poems with Ōtomo no Tabito and others.
A similar poem appears in Book Three of the Man'yōshū, with the lower verse "kogiinishi fune no ato naki gotoshi."
First line, "yo no naka o," means "this world."
Second line, "nani ni tatoemu," means "to what shall I compare it," and the poem breaks after this second line, posing a question that the lower verse answers. It shares this question with the final line of 1286 in this book, "nani ni tatoen."
Third line, "asaborake," means "in the faint light of dawn."
Fourth line, "kogiyuku fune no," means "of a boat rowing away."
Final line, "ato no shiranami," means "the white waves in its wake," ending on a noun and likening the world's fleetingness to white waves that rise and soon vanish.
- Author
- The Novice Mansei
- Source
- Shui Wakashu
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