露しげきあしたの原の女郎花
一枝折らん袖は濡るとも
一枝折らん袖は濡るとも
- Roma-ji
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Tsuyu shigeki ashita no hara no ominaeshi hitoeda oran sode wa nuru tomo
- English Translation
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On the Plain of Morning
where the dew lies heavy now,
the maiden flowers:
one spray of them I'll pick,
though my sleeves be soaked
- Meaning
- On the Plain of Morning, heavy with morning dew, I will pick a spray of maiden flowers, even if my sleeves are soaked.
- Commentary
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Book Four Autumn Poems I 251
Headnote: "Composed when presenting a hundred-poem sequence in the reign of Emperor Horikawa"
A poem on maiden flowers from the Horikawa Hundred-Poem Sequence. On a morning heavy with dew, the poet resolves to pick a spray of the maiden flowers blooming on the Plain of Morning, even if his sleeves are soaked with dew. Layering "morning" onto the place name Ashita no Hara, he expresses through inversion a heart that seeks the flowers without minding the morning dew.
The author, "Major Counselor Moroyori," written with a different second character in this text, is Minamoto no Moroyori. Other texts give "Major Counselor Moroyori" with the usual characters, and since he was a poet of the Horikawa Hundred-Poem Sequence, the name is understood as Minamoto no Moroyori. The son of Minister of the Left Minamoto no Toshifusa, he rose to Major Counselor.
From this poem through 254, poems on maiden flowers follow one another.
First line, "tsuyu shigeki": "where the dew lies heavy."
Second line, "ashita no hara no": "ashita" is a pivot word for the poetic place Ashita no Hara in Yamato and for "ashita," morning: "of the Plain of Morning, on this dewy morning."
Third line, "ominaeshi": the maiden flower, one of the seven flowers of autumn, often likened to a woman. Poems 252, 253 and 254 of this book also treat maiden flowers.
Fourth line, "hitoeda oran": "n" is the volitional "mu": "I will pick a spray." The poem pauses here and is inverted with the last line.
Fifth line, "sode wa nuru tomo": "tomo" is a concessive hypothetical, "even if my sleeves get wet." "Sode no shioruru" in 253 of this book likewise tells of sleeves wet from picking maiden flowers.
- Author
- Minamoto no Moroyori
- Source
- Senzai Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Kokoro o ba chigusa no iro ni somuredomo sode ni utsuru wa hagi ga hanazuri
- Next Poem
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Ominaeshi nabiku o mireba akikaze no fukikuru sue mo natsukashiki kana