六年にぞ君は来まさむ住吉の
まつべき身こそいたく老いぬれ
まつべき身こそいたく老いぬれ
- Roma-ji
-
Mutose ni zo kimi wa kimasamu sumiyoshi no matsubeki mi koso itaku oinure
- English Translation
-
Only in six years
will you come back home again;
like Sumiyoshi's
pines, I who must wait for you
have grown so very old.
- Meaning
- Only after six years will you come home again, and I, who must wait for you like the pines of Sumiyoshi, have grown terribly old.
- Commentary
-
Book Six Parting Poems 177
A poem sent to someone setting out on a distant journey, lamenting a parting whose return will take as long as six years. The poet, priest of the Sumiyoshi Shrine, likens himself to the pines of Sumiyoshi and pleads that the one who must keep waiting has already grown very old, letting his fear of never meeting again show through.
First line, "mutose ni zo": the particle "zo" agrees with "kimasamu" in the second line, and the long wait is given a concrete number of years.
Second line, "kimi wa kimasamu": "kimasu" is the honorific of "to come," and the conjectural "mu" concludes "zo." The poem breaks after this line.
Third line, "sumiyoshi no," names the place of the shrine the poet served, famous also for its pines, and leads into "matsu" in the next line.
Fourth line, "matsubeki mi koso": "matsu" is a pivot meaning both the pines of Sumiyoshi and to wait. Poem 175 in this book also reads "matsubeki mi koso," both speaking of an aging one awaiting a return, and "iki no matsu" in 185 likewise plays on pine and waiting, so the waiting heart entrusted to pines echoes through the book.
Final line, "itaku oinure": "nure" is the perfective "nu" in the form that concludes "koso." Adding "itaku" (terribly) to the "oinikere" of 175, it makes the decline of the waiting one all the more striking.
- Author
- Tsumori no Kunimoto
- Source
- Shika Wakashu
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