Ōigawa Tonase no taki ni mi o nagete hayaku to hito ni iwasete shi kana - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

大井川戸無瀬の滝に身を投げて
はやくと人に言はせてしかな

Roma-ji: Ōigawa Tonase no taki ni mi o nagete hayaku to hito ni iwasete shi kana
English Translation: Into the Ōi,
at the falls of Tonase,
I would cast myself,
and have them say of me,
"So soon, so swiftly gone"
Meaning: I would cast myself into the falls of Tonase on the Ōi River, and have people say of me, "He was gone so soon."
Commentary: Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems II 1143

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
I would cast myself into the falls of Tonase on the Ōi and have people say, "So soon gone," he says. He wishes to throw himself into the swift falls of Tonase and be spoken of as one who left this world as quickly as their current. Rather than linger in a painful world, he would leave it cleanly, and he entrusts the intensity of his weariness with the world to a famous waterfall. "Hayaku," so soon, also echoes the swiftness of the falls.
The author, "the monk Kūnin," was a monk of the late Heian period whose biography is not known in detail.
Like 1124 of this book, which awaits the evening of becoming cremation smoke, it is a poem that thinks of leaving this world. The next poem, 1144, also thinks of the self after death.

First line, "Ōigawa": the Ōi River, which flows at the foot of Arashiyama in Yamashiro, a famous place.
Second line, "Tonase no taki ni": "into the falls of Tonase," upstream on the Ōi.
Third line, "mi o nagete": "casting myself."
Fourth line, "hayaku to hito ni": "hayaku" means "gone so soon," echoing the swiftness of the falls.
Fifth line, "iwasete shi kana": "te shi kana" is a final particle of one's own wish, "I would have them say."
Author: Kūnin
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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