立ち別れいなばの山の時鳥
まつと告げこせ帰り来るがに
まつと告げこせ帰り来るがに
- Roma-ji
-
Tachiwakare Inaba no yama no hototogisu matsu to tsugekose kaerikuru gani
- English Translation
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Parting, you go off—
O cuckoo of the mountain
of Inaba,
tell them that I wait like the pine,
so that they may come back home.
- Meaning
- Cuckoo of Mount Inaba, as we part and they go away, tell them that I am waiting, so that they will come back home.
- Commentary
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Miscellaneous Poems 601
Headnote: "Written on a fan painted with a cuckoo, among the fans and other things I sent in the fifth month to someone who had gone down to Michinoku"
In the fifth month, sending fans and other gifts to someone who had gone to Michinoku, the poet wrote this on a fan painted with a cuckoo, asking the bird to tell the traveller that he waits, so that they will return. It takes as its source Ariwara no Yukihira's Kokinshū poem of parting at Mount Inaba, "if I hear you wait like the pine, I will come back at once," and shapes itself as a reply to it.
The Ruijū text gives the headnote with "many fans" and adds "poem." The text transmitted by Teika spells line 5 differently. The character for "fan" in the headnote is hard to read in the source as displayed and is supplied from the Ruijū text.
Line 1 means "parting and going," the same as the source poem's opening.
Line 2 names Mount Inaba, inaba meaning both the province and "if you go"; it uses the source poem's second line unchanged.
Line 3 names the cuckoo painted on the fan, the bird of the fifth month.
Line 4 means "tell them I wait," matsu meaning both "pine" and "wait," kose being the imperative of the wishing auxiliary kosu; it answers "if I hear you wait" in the source poem.
Line 5 means "so that they will come home," gani expressing purpose; it answers "I will come back at once" in the source poem.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
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