大原やまだ炭竈も習はねば
我が宿のみぞ煙絶えたる
我が宿のみぞ煙絶えたる
- Roma-ji
-
Ōhara ya mada sumigama mo narawaneba waga yado nomi zo keburi taetaru
- English Translation
-
Here in Ohara
I have yet to learn the ways
of the charcoal kiln —
so only from my own hut
has the rising smoke died out
- Meaning
- Here in Ohara I have not yet learned to work a charcoal kiln, and so mine is the only dwelling with no smoke rising.
- Commentary
-
Book Ten Miscellaneous Poems II 367
Having moved to Ohara, known as a charcoal-burning village, the poet has not yet learned to work a kiln, so among houses sending up charcoal smoke, his alone has none. In the smokeless dwelling show the loneliness and poverty of one newly settled in a mountain village.
Like the reed fire of the dwelling in the opening poem, 348, it sings of the fire in a humble mountain dwelling away from the world.
The first line, "Ōhara ya," presents the name of Ohara in Yamashiro Province with feeling through the interjectory "ya"; Ohara was known for charcoal-burning.
The second line, "mada sumigama mo," uses "mo": even the charcoal kiln.
The third line, "narawaneba," is a conditional of certainty with the negative: since I have not learned.
The fourth line, "waga yado nomi zo," singles out his dwelling alone with "nomi" and "zo."
The final line, "keburi taetaru," closes "zo" with the attributive continuative "taru," a kakari-musubi: the smoke has ceased.
- Author
- Ryōzen
- Source
- Shika Wakashu
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