梓弓さこそは反りの高からめ
はるほどもなくかへるべしやは
はるほどもなくかへるべしやは
- Roma-ji
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Azusayumi sa koso wa sori no takakarame haru hodo mo naku kaeru beshi ya wa
- English Translation
-
Catalpa wood bow,
how high your arch must be, and
proud you are, yet still
scarcely is it spring, should you
spring back and go home so soon
- Meaning
- Like a catalpa bow you must hold your head high, yet should you go back home so soon, when spring has hardly come, like a bow that springs back before it is even drawn?
- Commentary
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Book Nine Miscellaneous Poems I 557
Like a catalpa bow with its high arch, the poet says, you must be proud, yet should you go back home so soon, when spring has scarcely come, like a bow springing back before it is even strung? Stringing together words associated with the bow, the poem tries to detain someone who leaves as soon as spring arrives.
Poem 564 in this book is composed in the same pattern, sa koso wa ... me ... kaeru beshi ya wa, sharing the conceit of holding back someone who would leave too early.
First line, 'azusayumi', means a bow of catalpa wood, a pillow word for haru, hiku, soru and the like.
Second line, 'sa koso wa sori no', means surely the arch, the particle koso answered by me in the third line. The arch of the bow is overlaid with the other's pride.
Third line, 'takakarame', means must be high, me, the realis of mu, answering koso in the second line and leading on to the lower verse with a concessive turn.
Fourth line, 'haru hodo mo naku', is a pivot in which haru means both stringing a bow and the season of spring, left in kana.
Final line, 'kaeru beshi ya wa', is a pivot in which kaeru means both a bow springing back and going home, left in kana. Ya wa forms a rhetorical question. It is the same final line as poem 564 in this book.
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
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