衣打つ音を聞くにぞ知られぬる
里遠からぬ草枕とは
里遠からぬ草枕とは
- Roma-ji
-
Koromo utsu oto o kiku ni zo shirarenuru sato tōkaranu kusamakura to wa
- English Translation
-
The fulling of cloth,
by hearing its sound, I found
I had come to know
that it lay not far from a village,
my pillow of grass tonight
- Meaning
- Hearing the sound of cloth being fulled, I came to know that my lodging for the night on the road lay not far from a village.
- Commentary
-
Book Five Autumn Poems II 342
Headnote: "Composed on the topic 'Fulling Cloth Heard at a Traveler's Lodging'"
Composed on the topic "Fulling Cloth Heard at a Traveler's Lodging." Hearing the sound of the fulling block, the poet says, he naturally came to know that tonight's lodging on his journey was not far from a village. Amid a forlorn night on the road, he senses in the sound of the block the presence of people's lives.
The author, "Shunsei Hōshi," was a monk of the cloistered-rule period, but little is known of his life.
With this poem the fulling poems close. Where the poems before imagined the heart of the one beating the cloth, this one hears the block from the traveler's side.
First line, "koromo utsu": the topic's "fulling cloth," in the same words as "koromo utsu nari" in the fourth line of 340 of this book.
Second line, "oto o kiku ni zo": "zo" closes with the attributive "nuru" in the third line, "by hearing the sound," giving the reason he came to know.
Third line, "shirarenuru": "re" is the spontaneous "ru," "it came to be known to me." The poem pauses here, inverted with the lines that follow.
Fourth line, "sato tōkaranu": "not far from a village."
Fifth line, "kusamakura to wa": "kusamakura," a grass pillow, means sleeping on a journey or a traveler's lodging. "To wa" closes the poem by giving what he came to know.
- Author
- Shunsei
- Source
- Senzai Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Ta ga tame ni ika ni uteba ka karakoromo chitabi yachitabi koe no uramuru
- Next Poem
-
Yūgiri ya aki no aware o kometsuran wakeiru sode ni tsuyu no okisou