玉津島岸打つ波の立ち返り
せないでましぬ名残さびしも
せないでましぬ名残さびしも
- Roma-ji
-
Tamatsushima kishi utsu nami no tachikaeri sena idemashinu nagori sabishi mo
- English Translation
-
Like the waves that strike
the shore of Tamatsushima
and then roll back again,
my dear one has gone away—
how lonely what he leaves behind
- Meaning
- Like the waves that break on the shore of Tamatsushima and then draw back, my husband has gone away, and how lonely is all he has left behind.
- Commentary
-
Book Eight Love Poems II 510
Like the waves that strike the shore of Tamatsushima and draw back again, the poet's husband has gone home, and what he leaves behind is lonely. Using old-fashioned words of the kind found in the Man'yōshū, the poem speaks from a woman's side, longing for the man who has left.
The author, Akisue, is Fujiwara no Akisue. A son of Fujiwara no Takatsune, he rose to Master of the Office of Palace Repairs. Founder of the Rokujō Fujiwara house, he served Retired Emperor Shirakawa as a close retainer and was active as a poet.
First line, 'Tamatsushima', is a famous place at Waka-no-ura in Kii. The upper two lines lead into tachikaeri in the third line.
Second line, 'kishi utsu nami no', means of the waves that strike the shore.
Third line, 'tachikaeri', means drawing back again, layering the returning waves with the man going home.
Fourth line, 'sena idemashinu', means my husband has gone, sena being a fond word a woman uses for her husband or lover, and idemasu an honorific for to go. The poem breaks after the fourth line with the perfective nu.
Final line, 'nagori sabishi mo', means how lonely what remains, the exclamatory mo being an old usage common in the Man'yōshū.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Akisue
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
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