もろともに行く人もなき別れ路に
涙ばかりぞ止まらざりける
涙ばかりぞ止まらざりける
- Roma-ji
-
Morotomo ni yuku hito mo naki wakareji ni namida bakari zo tomarazarikeru
- English Translation
-
On the road of parting
where no one goes along
to keep me company,
only my tears would not stay
but kept on with me
- Meaning
- On this road of parting where no one walks beside me, only my tears refused to stay behind and kept on flowing.
- Commentary
-
Book Seven Parting Poems 487
Headnote: "Sent to someone when I set out on ascetic practice and made a pilgrimage to Kumano"
Sent to someone when the poet set out on ascetic practice and made a pilgrimage to Kumano. On a road of parting where no one goes with me, only my tears would not stop, he says. The loneliness of walking the steep road to Kumano alone and his feeling for the one he left behind are entrusted to tears that will not cease.
The author, "the Monk Dōmyō," was the son of Major Captain of the Right Fujiwara no Michitsuna. A Tendai monk who served as superintendent of Tennōji, he was famed for his beautiful voice in sutra chanting. He is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals of the Middle Ages.
First line, "morotomo ni": "together."
Second line, "yuku hito mo naki": "with no one going along," setting out alone on ascetic travel.
Third line, "wakareji ni": "wakareji" is the road of parting. The same word appears in 479 of this book.
Fourth line, "namida bakari zo": the limiting "bakari" and emphatic "zo," which closes with the attributive "keru" in the last line.
Fifth line, "tomarazarikeru": "zari" is the continuative of the negative "zu," and "keru" the attributive of the exclamatory "keri." Besides "only my tears would not stop," it can be read as "though no one came with me, my tears alone did not stay behind but followed me."
- Author
- Dōmyō
- Source
- Senzai Wakashu
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