草深み分け入りて訪ふ人もあれや
ふりゆく跡の鈴虫の声
ふりゆく跡の鈴虫の声
- Roma-ji
-
Kusa fukami wakeirite tou hito mo are ya furiyuku ato no suzumushi no koe
- English Translation
-
With the grass so deep,
would there were someone to come
parting it to call,
where the old place falls to ruin
and the bell crickets ring.
- Meaning
- The grass grows so thick; I wish someone would part it and come to visit, here where the old dwelling falls into decay and the bell crickets ring their song.
- Commentary
-
Autumn Poems 460
Headnote: "Insects at an old home"
The topic is insects singing at an old village or a former dwelling. The grass has grown so thick at the site of the old dwelling that the path is lost; the poet wishes someone would part it and come to visit, as the bell crickets sing where the place grows old. The loneliness of a former home falling to ruin is laid over the voices of the bell crickets singing there.
Furi plays on furu, to grow old, and furu, to shake a bell, linked through the bell cricket. It also echoes 444, where insects sing in the overgrown garden of an old friend.
First line, “kusa fukami”: since the grass is deep; mi added to an adjective stem expresses a reason.
Second line, “wakeirite tou”: parting the grass and coming to visit.
Third line, “hito mo are ya”: a hypermetric line of six syllables, would there were someone; ya is exclamatory, expressing the wish. The poem breaks after the third line.
Fourth line, “furiyuku ato no”: furi is a pivot word joining furu, to grow old, and furu, to shake a bell, of the site growing old.
Fifth line, “suzumushi no koe”: ending on a noun, the voice of the bell cricket, linked with the shaking of a bell in the fourth line.
- Author
- Saigyō
- Source
- Sankashu
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