あしひきの山の尾上に刈る萱の
束の間もなく乱れてぞ思ふ
束の間もなく乱れてぞ思ふ
- Roma-ji
-
Ashihiki no yama no onoe ni karu kaya no tsuka no ma mo naku midarete zo omou
- English Translation
-
Like the sedge they cut
upon the mountain's ridge,
bound into sheaves,
without a moment's pause
my heart is torn with longing.
- Meaning
- Like the sedge cut and bundled on the mountain ridge, not for a moment's span does my heart cease to be torn with longing.
- Commentary
-
Love Poems 424
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Among poems on love"
From the sheaves of sedge cut on the mountain ridge the poet draws tsuka no ma, "a moment's span," and says that not for a moment does his disordered heart cease to brood on love. The easily tangled sedge leaves are laid over a tangled heart.
The base text glosses "ridge" in line 2 with okabe, "hillside," and the Ruijū and Teika texts read line 2 as yama no okabe ni. According to the notes in the base text, the Teika text also differs in line 4. Here the base text is followed. Kamo no Mabuchi marked this poem with a circle.
Line 1, ashihiki no, is a pillow word for "mountain."
Line 2 means "on the mountain's ridge."
Line 3 means "the sedge they cut," and the first three lines form a preface leading from a sheaf (tsuka) to "a moment's span."
Line 4 means "without even a moment," joining the bundle of sedge with a brief time.
Line 5: zo binds the attributive omou; the heart is torn as cut sedge falls in disarray. The scene moves from the field plants of the preceding poem to sedge on the mountain.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
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