禊する川瀬に暮れぬ夏の日の
入相の鐘のその声により
入相の鐘のその声により
- Roma-ji
-
Misogi suru kawase ni kurenu natsu no hi no iriai no kane no sono koe ni yori
- English Translation
-
Where they purify
in the river shallows, day
has ended—summer's day,
by the sunset bell's tolling,
by its voice I know it so.
- Meaning
- At the river shallows where they purify themselves, the summer day has ended—I know it by the voice of the sunset bell.
- Commentary
-
Summer Poems 176
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed at the end of summer"
On the day of the purification at summer's end, the poet knows that the day has ended at the river shallows where the rite is held by the sound of the bell tolling at sunset. He captures the closing of summer's last day through the sense of hearing, the sound of a bell.
Kamo no Mabuchi remarked that poems on the sound of bells did not exist in ancient times, that it is unsuitable in ordinary poems, and that it belongs only to matters of Buddhism.
Line 1, misogi suru, means performing ablutions, here the purification rite of the sixth month. The next poem, 177, opens with the same words, so the two stand side by side.
Line 2: nu marks completion, "the day has ended," and the poem pauses here.
Line 3, "the summer day," marks the last day of summer and announces the close of the section.
Line 4, "the sunset bell," is hypermetric and refers to the bell struck at temples at sunset.
Line 5, "by its voice," through inversion gives last the clue by which the poet knew the day had ended.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
- Prev Poem
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Kinō made hana no chiru o zo oshimikoshi yume ka utsutsu ka natsu mo kurenikeri
- Next Poem
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Misogi suru kaya no nokiba ni hiku shide no matsuwaretsukite natsu o todomemu