天の川霧立ちわたる彦星の
妻迎へ舟はやも漕がなむ
妻迎へ舟はやも漕がなむ
- Roma-ji
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Ama no gawa kiri tachiwataru hikoboshi no tsumamukaebune haya mo koganamu
- English Translation
-
On the Milky Way
mists are rising everywhere—
the Herdboy's boat
that goes to meet his own wife,
how I wish he'd row it fast!
- Meaning
- Mist rises all across the River of Heaven—O Herdboy, I wish you would row your boat quickly to meet your wife.
- Commentary
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Autumn Poems 196
Headnote: "Tanabata"
On the night of Tanabata, as mist rises over the River of Heaven, the poet wishes that the Herdboy would quickly row out the boat to meet the Weaver Maid. He sings as if watching over, from earth, the two stars who can hardly wait for their once-a-year meeting.
The upper lines are identical to those of a Man'yōshū Tanabata poem in which, as mist rises over the River of Heaven, the sound of the Herdboy's oars is heard as night grows late, so the poem draws on Man'yō Tanabata verse. In the source text consulted, a character in line 1 is missing and has been supplied from the Teika text's ama no kawa.
Line 1 shares its opening with 192, calling up the poems on the topic "Tanabata."
Line 2 means "mist rises all across," and the poem pauses here.
Line 3: the Herdboy who awaited the meeting in 194 is here about to go and fetch his wife.
Line 4, tsumamukaebune, is the boat that goes to meet his wife, the Weaver Maid.
Line 5: namu is a particle of wishing addressed to another, "I wish you would row quickly."
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
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