里ごとに叩く水鶏の音すなり
心のとまる宿やなからむ
心のとまる宿やなからむ
- Roma-ji
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Satogoto ni tataku kuina no oto su nari kokoro no tomaru yado ya nakaramu
- English Translation
-
In every village
the water rail is knocking,
as I hear its sound;
is there no single house
where its heart would wish to stay
- Meaning
- In village after village I hear the water rail knocking. Is there no house where its heart would wish to stay?
- Commentary
-
Book Two Summer Poems 142
The knocking call of the water rail is heard in village after village, so the poet wonders whether the bird has no house where its heart would settle. The cry is likened to a visitor going from door to door.
The next poem, 143, also has the water rail knocking at a door, and the two make a pair of poems on the bird.
First line, 'satogoto ni', means in every village. Like 'in every house' in poem 149 in this book, it sings of something reaching everywhere.
Second line, 'tataku kuina no', takes the water rail, whose call sounds like knocking on a door; tataku refers to that call.
Third line, 'oto su nari', uses the auditory inferential nari: such a sound is heard. The poem breaks after the third line.
Fourth line, 'kokoro no tomaru', means where the heart is held, where one would gladly settle.
Final line, 'yado ya nakaramu', means is there no house, the particle ya binding with the conjectural mu.
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Natsu no yo no niwa ni furishiku shirayuki wa tsuki no iru koso kiyuru narikere
- Next Poem
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Yomosugara hakanaku tataku kuina kana saseru to mo naki shiba no kariya o