世の中は常にもがもな渚漕ぐ
海人の小舟の綱手かなしも
海人の小舟の綱手かなしも
- Roma-ji
-
Yo no naka wa tsune ni mo gamo na nagisa kogu ama no obune no tsunade kanashimo
- English Translation
-
Would that this world
might stay always as it is;
rowing by the shore,
the fishers' little boat
drawn by its rope moves my heart.
- Meaning
- Would that this world could stay forever as it is. The fishers' little boat, rowing along the shore and drawn by its rope, touches my heart so deeply.
- Commentary
-
Miscellaneous Poems 570
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Mooring on a journey"
Moved by the peaceful sight of a fishing boat drawn by its rope along the shore, the poet wishes the world could stay forever unchanged. Tender love for the calm work before his eyes and awareness of the world's impermanence become one. It is Sanetomo's best-known poem, chosen as number 93 of the Hyakunin Isshu under the name of the Kamakura Minister of the Right.
It was included in the imperial anthology Shinchokusen Wakashū. It draws on a Man'yōshū poem by Fufuki no Toji wishing for unchanging things, and on the Kokinshū eastern song about boats drawn by rope at Shiogama in Michinoku. Kamo no Mabuchi gave it a double mark of praise, admiring how it draws on the Man'yōshū and ends with words from the Michinoku song, and saying that if one is to use art, it should be on so grand a scale.
Line 1 means "this world."
Line 2 means "would it were unchanging," mogamo expressing a wish and na exclamation, with a break after the line.
Line 3 means "rowing along the shore," moving from boats at anchor in the two preceding poems to a boat rowing by day.
Line 4 means "of the fishers' small boat."
Line 5 means "how the drawing rope moves me," kanashi meaning deeply stirred and mo exclamatory; it borrows the last line of the Kokinshū eastern song.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
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