帰るさは浅瀬も知らじ天の川
飽かぬ涙に水しまさらば
飽かぬ涙に水しまさらば
- Roma-ji
-
Kaerusa wa asase mo shiraji amanogawa akanu namida ni mizu shi masaraba
- English Translation
-
On the way back home
he will not find the shallows
of the River of Heaven,
if the tears of their reluctance
swell the waters of the stream
- Meaning
- On the way home he will not be able to find the shallows, if the River of Heaven swells with tears shed at a parting too soon.
- Commentary
-
Book Three Autumn Poems 167
If the River of Heaven swells with the tears the two stars shed in reluctance to part, the shallows for crossing will be lost on the way home. Exaggerating the flood of tears, the poem shows how deep the grief of parting is.
Where the preceding poem, 166, wishes for waves to delay the return, this poem has the tears themselves swell the river and close the way home, and the two form a pair on the homeward crossing. With this poem the Tanabata sequence ends.
From poem 158 through poem 167 in this book come poems on Tanabata, singing of the yearly meeting of the Herdsman and the Weaver Maid, the custom of lending robes to the Weaver, and the tears of parting at dawn.
First line, 'kaerusa wa', uses kaerusa, the way home. Like kaesa in poems 162 and 166 in this book, it sings of the homeward path after parting.
Second line, 'asase mo shiraji', means he will not know even the shallows, ji being the negative conjectural auxiliary. The poem breaks after the second line and the lower half is inverted.
Third line, 'amanogawa', is the river the Herdsman crosses to return.
Fourth line, 'akanu namida ni', means with tears of reluctance, echoing 'the tears of a parting too soon' in poem 165 in this book.
Final line, 'mizu shi masaraba', uses the emphatic shi: if the water should rise.
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
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Amanogawa kaesa no fune ni nami kakeyo nori wazurawaba hodo mo fu bakari
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Sakisomuru ashita no hara no ominaeshi aki o shirasuru tsuma ni zo arikeru