何事も行きて祈らむと思ひしに
神無月にもなりにけるかな
神無月にもなりにけるかな
- Roma-ji
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Nanigoto mo yukite inoramu to omoishi ni kaminazuki ni mo narinikeru kana
- English Translation
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For everything
I meant to go and offer prayers,
so I had thought—
yet it has already turned
to the godless Tenth Month.
- Meaning
- I had meant to go and pray for all manner of things, and yet, before I knew it, the Godless Month had come.
- Commentary
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Book Four Winter Poems 140
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
The poet laments that he had always intended to visit a shrine and pray, yet while he lingered, the Tenth Month, said to be the month when the gods are absent, had arrived. The everyday frustrations of his life merge with the loneliness of early winter.
In Yoshitada’s “Monthly Collection” this poem opens the Tenth Month, and here it opens the winter book of the Shikashū. It is also cited as evidence that the Tenth Month was already understood as “the month without gods” in his day.
First line, “Nanigoto mo”: “for everything,” showing that he had many wishes to pray for.
Second line, “yukite inoramu to”: “mu” expresses intention, the plan to go to a shrine and pray. The line has eight syllables, one more than the norm.
Third line, “omoishi ni”: “shi” is the attributive of the past auxiliary “ki,” and “ni” is adversative, “though I had thought,” leading to a disappointed hope.
Fourth line, “kaminazuki ni mo”: the Tenth Month, understood as the month when the gods gather at Izumo and leave their shrines empty, ironically answering his wish to pray.
Fifth line, “narinikeru kana”: completion, sudden realization, and exclamation combine in surprise that the month has come unnoticed. The closing poem of the book, 160, by the same poet, ends with “narinikeri,” so beginning and end of winter echo each other.
- Author
- Sone no Yoshitada
- Source
- Shika Wakashu
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