生ひ立たで枯れぬと聞きしこのもとの
いかでなげきの森となるらむ
いかでなげきの森となるらむ
- Roma-ji
-
Oitatade karenu to kikishi ko no moto no ikade nageki no mori to naruramu
- English Translation
-
Beneath the young tree
that I heard had withered
before it could grow,
how is it that there has risen
such a forest of lament
- Meaning
- Beneath the young tree that I heard withered before it could grow, how has there come to be such a forest of grief?
- Commentary
-
Book Ten Miscellaneous Poems II 398
Overlaying a young tree that withered before it grew with a child who died young, the poem seems to ask how that child's place has become a whole forest of grief. Playing "ko" as both tree and child and "nageki" as both firewood and lament, and invoking the Forest of Lament, a poetic place in Osumi, it conveys the depth of the bereaved's sorrow.
It uses the same "ko no moto" as poem 380 of this book; there a child remembered his mother, while here a child who died is mourned. Poem 333 of Book Nine also plays on "nageki" as firewood and lament to sing of human grief.
The first line, "oitatade," uses the negative "de": before it could grow.
The second line, "karenu to kikishi," combines the perfective "nu" and attributive past "shi": that I heard had withered.
The third line, "ko no moto no," is a pivot word joining "beneath the tree" and "the child's."
The fourth line, "ikade nageki no," asks with the adverb "ikade" (how) and is a pivot word joining "nageki" (firewood) and "nageki" (lament).
The final line, "mori to naruramu," draws on the Forest of Lament in Osumi and ends with the conjectural "ramu": how has it become a forest?
- Author
- Kiyohara no Motosuke
- Source
- Shika Wakashu
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Hito shirezu mono omou koto mo arishikado kono koto bakari kanashiki wa nashi
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Kyō yori wa Ama no kawagiri tachiwakare ikanaru sora ni awamu to suramu