真菰生ふる淀の沢水水錆ゐて
影し見えねば問ふ人もなし
影し見えねば問ふ人もなし
- Roma-ji
-
Makomo ouru Yodo no sawamizu misabi ite kage shi mieneba tou hito mo nashi
- English Translation
-
Where the wild rice grows,
the marsh waters of Yodo
are filmed with scum,
and no reflection shows—
no one comes to call.
- Meaning
- In the marsh waters of Yodo where the wild rice grows, a film of rust lies on the surface and no reflection shows, and so no one comes to call.
- Commentary
-
Love Poems 546
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Love by the water"
As the marsh water of Yodo where wild rice grows is filmed over so that nothing is reflected, the poet's figure goes unseen, and no one comes to visit. Naming the same wild rice as the preceding poem, it pairs the two poems on love by the water.
The base text glosses the characters for "water plants" in line 3 as misabi, with a side gloss migusa. The Ruijū text reads misabi ite, which is adopted here.
Line 1 means "where the wild rice grows," with an extra syllable, taking up the wild rice of the preceding poem.
Line 2 names the marsh waters of Yodo in Yamashiro.
Line 3 means "filmed with rust-like scum."
Line 4 means "since no reflection shows," the same form as "since it is not seen" in the preceding poem.
Line 5 means "no one comes to call," the same last line as 497.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
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Mishimae ya Tamae no makomo migakurete me ni shi mieneba karu hito mo nashi
- Next Poem
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Ukinami no Ojima no ama no nureginu nuru to na iiso kuchihatsuru to mo