美作や久米の佐良山と思へども
和歌の浦とぞ言ふべかりける
和歌の浦とぞ言ふべかりける
- Roma-ji
-
Mimasaka ya Kume no Sarayama to omoedomo Waka no ura to zo iu bekarikeru
- English Translation
-
Here in Mimasaka
I thought it Mount Sarayama
of Kume, and yet
Waka Bay, the Bay of Poems,
is what I should have called it
- Meaning
- I thought this was Mount Sarayama of Kume in Mimasaka, but I see I should have called it Waka Bay, the bay of poems.
- Commentary
-
Book Nine Miscellaneous Poems I 283
Though in the land of Mount Sarayama of Kume, a poetic place in Mimasaka Province, the poet says it ought to be called Waka Bay. Overlaying the name of Waka Bay, a poetic place in Kii Province, with "waka" (poems), the poem seems to praise the many poems composed there.
The next poem, 284, answers it by beginning with "Waka no ura to," so that the two are set as an exchange.
The first line, "Mimasaka ya," presents the province's name with feeling through the interjectory "ya."
The second line, "Kume no Sarayama to," names Mount Sarayama of Kume, a poetic place in Mimasaka, and has eight syllables, an extra-syllable line.
The third line, "omoedomo," uses the concessive "domo": though I thought so.
The fourth line, "Waka no ura to zo," overlays the name of Waka Bay in Kii with "waka" (poems), singling it out with the emphatic "zo." The next poem begins with the same words.
The final line, "iu bekarikeru," closes "zo" with the obligation "beshi" and the attributive exclamatory "keri," a kakari-musubi meaning it should have been called so.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Shika Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Kasugayama kita no fujinami sakishi yori sakayu beshi to wa kanete shiriniki
- Next Poem
-
Waka no ura to iu nite shirinu kaze fukaba nami no tachiko to omou naru beshi