緖をよりてかひなきものはおちつもる
淚の玉をぬかぬなりけり
淚の玉をぬかぬなりけり
- Roma-ji
-
O o yorite kai naki mono wa ochitsumoru namida no tama o nukanu narikeri
- English Translation
-
Though I twist the cord,
there is one thing all in vain:
the jewels of tears
that fall and pile up, I find,
cannot be strung on a thread
- Meaning
- However I twist the cord, one thing is in vain: the jewels of my falling tears, piling up, can never be strung.
- Commentary
-
42 The Third Day of the Second Month: Jewels of Tears
On the third day of the second month the sea was as rough as the day before, so the boat did not sail. On the second, too, the rain and wind had not stopped, and the party had prayed to the gods and buddhas all day and through the night. Because the wind did not cease, the waves along the shore broke and drew back again and again.
The party was staying near Izumi-no-nada. The poet of this day's poem is not named.
Watching the waves break and draw back along the shore as the wind kept blowing, someone composed this poem in response to the scene.
The diary records no response, and the day ended. The next day, the fourth, the beautiful shells and stones on the beach would prompt the poems on the "shells of forgetting," in remembrance of the lost child.
The first line, "O o yorite," means "twisting the cord together." The second line, "kai naki mono wa," means "what is in vain." The third line, "ochitsumoru," means "falling and piling up."
The fourth line, "namida no tama o," likens drops of tears to jewels. The final line, "nukanu narikeri," closes with feeling: it is that they cannot be strung on a thread. "Nuku" means to string jewels on a cord.
"O" (cord), "yoru" (to twist), "tama" (jewels) and "nuku" (to string) are associated words drawn from stringing beads, and the spray of the white waves breaking and drawing back is overlaid with jewels of tears. Though one twists the cord, the falling tears cannot be strung: the poem expresses a grief without end.
- Author
- Ki no Tsurayuki
- Source
- Tosa Nikki
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Hiku fune no tsunade no nagaki haru no hi o yosoka ika made ware wa henikeri
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Yosuru nami uchi mo yosenamu waga kouru hito wasuregai orite hirowamu