照射する火串の松も燃え尽きて
帰るに迷ふ下つ闇かな
帰るに迷ふ下つ闇かな
- Roma-ji
-
Tomoshi suru hogushi no matsu mo moetsukite kaeru ni mayou shimotsuyami kana
- English Translation
-
The pine torches set
upon the hunters' poles
have burned away,
and lost on the road back home,
how dark the waning-moon night!
- Meaning
- The pine torches on the hunters' poles have burned away, and I lose my way home in the darkness of the waning-moon nights.
- Commentary
-
Book Three Summer Poems 198
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed as a poem on torch-hunting"
Like the preceding poem, this was composed on the topic of "torch-hunting." The pine torches on the hunters' poles have burned out entirely, and in the darkness of a night late in the month, when the moon rises late, the poet loses his way home. Where the preceding poem said dawn came before the torches burned out, this one tells of a darkness that persists even after they are spent, so the two poems form a contrast.
The author, "Minamoto no Nakamasa," was the son of Minamoto no Yoritsuna, Head of the Arsenal Bureau. He also served as Head of the Arsenal Bureau and was the father of Minamoto no Yorimasa.
First line, "tomoshi suru": the same opening as 194 and 197 of this book.
Second line, "hogushi no matsu mo": the same line as in the preceding poem, 197.
Third line, "moetsukite": "having burned out completely," the reverse of "kienaku ni" in the preceding poem.
Fourth line, "kaeru ni mayou": "losing my way on the road home" from the hunt.
Fifth line, "shimotsuyami kana": "shimotsuyami" is the darkness of the latter part of the lunar month, when the moon rises late and evenings are dark, and "kana" is exclamatory. Where the preceding poem, 197, showed clouds turning to dawn, this one shows a darkness that will not lift.
- Author
- Minamoto no Nakamasa
- Source
- Senzai Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Tomoshi suru hogushi no matsu mo kienaku ni toyama no kumo no akewataruran
- Next Poem
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Yama fukami hogushi no matsu wa tsukinuredo shika ni omoi o nao kakuru kana