うき波の小島の海人の濡れ衣
濡るとな言ひそ朽ち果つるとも
濡るとな言ひそ朽ち果つるとも
- Roma-ji
-
Ukinami no Ojima no ama no nureginu nuru to na iiso kuchihatsuru to mo
- English Translation
-
Like the fisher's robe
at Ojima in sorrow's waves,
all drenched with brine,
do not say that I am wet,
though I rot away at last.
- Meaning
- Like the fisher's robe at Ojima, drenched by sorrowful waves, I bear a false charge; do not say that I am wet with tears, even though I rot away at last.
- Commentary
-
Love Poems 547
Headnote: "Love by the sea"
As a fisher's robe at Ojima is soaked by sorrowful waves, the poet bears a false rumor, yet asks that no one say he is wet, even if he should rot away. Nureginu means both a wet robe and a false accusation.
Line 1 of the base text is irregular in its writing; here the reading ukinami no given in the notes for the Ruijū and Teika texts is followed. The base text glosses line 5 with hatsu tomo, and the Ruijū and Teika texts read kuchi wa hatsu tomo.
Line 1 plays on uki, "floating" and "sorrowful": the waves of sorrow.
Line 2 means "of the fisherfolk of Ojima," a poetic place in Michinoku.
Line 3 plays on nureginu, a wet robe and a false charge.
Line 4 means "do not say I am wet," na ... so being prohibitive; the poem pauses here, echoing nure in line 3.
Line 5 means "even though I rot away," by inversion; like "shall I rot away" in 470, it lays the rotting robe over a love-worn life.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
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