Mulberry Blossom
わだつみをこぎゆくふねのかぢのきのはなとはさらになみぞたちける
| wadatsumi o kogiyuku fune no kaji no ki no hana to wa sara ni nami zo tachikeru | Across the broad main, Rowing, goes a boat with Oars of mulberry Blossom, still In waves arising. |
11
Tag Archives: mulberry
MYS XVII: 4003
A poem with two envoys, composed in respectful response to Tachiyama.
朝日さし そがひに見ゆる 神ながら 御名に帯ばせる 白雲の 千重を押し別け 天そそり 高き立山 冬夏と 別くこともなく 白栲に 雪は降り置きて 古ゆ あり来にければ こごしかも 岩の神さび たまきはる 幾代経にけむ 立ちて居て 見れども異し 峰高み 谷を深みと 落ちたぎつ 清き河内に 朝さらず 霧立ちわたり 夕されば 雲居たなびき 雲居なす 心もしのに 立つ霧の 思ひ過ぐさず 行く水の 音もさやけく 万代に 言ひ継ぎゆかむ 川し絶えずは
| asapi sasi sogapi ni miyuru kamu nagara mina ni obasesu sirakumo no tipe wo osiwake ama sosori takaki tatiyama puyu natu to waku koto mo naku sirotape ni yuki pa puri okite inisipe yu arikinikereba kogosikamo ipa no kamusabi tama kiparu ikuyo penikemu tatiwite miredomo ayasi minedakami tani wo pukami to otitagitu kiyoki ka puti ni asa sarazu kiri tati watari yupu sareba kumowi tanabiki kumowi nasu kokoro mo sino ni tatu kiri no omopi sugusazu yuku midu no woto mo sayakeku yoroduyo ni ipitugi yukamu kapa si taezu wa |
The morning sun shines At my back,and Divine Your great name links: Clouds of white In a thousand layers, you pierce, and Tower into the heavens, Tall Tachiyama! In winter and, in summer both Indistinguishably are you Clad in mulberry white Fallen drifts of snow; Since ancient days Ever has been your estate, Fastened round with Crags divine； ‘til all souls end Have countless ages passed! Standing here, I see you, yet am awed by Your lofty peak and Valley’s deep, where Plunge seething cataracts of Waters pure to pools where Morning never leaves – Mists rise and roll across, and When the evening comes Clouds trail in and Cover all, Even, with sadness, my heart, so The rising mists Never leave my thoughts, and of Your running waters’ Clear, pure sound Through ten thousand ages Will I ever tell Unending as a river’s flow… |
Ōtomo no Ikenushi
大伴池主
MYS VII: 1107
Fubokushō IV: 1119
Love 53
Left (Tie).
久方のあまてる神のゆふかづらかけて幾世を戀わたるらん
| hisakata no amateru kami no yûkazura kakete iku yo o koiwataruran |
The eternal Heaven shining Goddess, with Mulberry garlands in her hair: Across as many ages Will our love endure… |
105
Right
露時雨下草かけてもる山の色かずならぬ袖を見せばや
| tsuyu shigure shitakusa kakete moru yama no iro kazu naranu sode wo miseba ya |
Dewfall and drizzle Dripping from the undergrowth Drenches Moruyama, Her countless scarlet Sleeves, are what I would show you… |
106
Sanekata Shū 105
Sent to someone’s house in the Tenth Month as a plea for some paper.
何をしてとよをかひめをいのらましゆふしでかたき神無月かな
| nani wo site toyowoka Fime wo inoramasi yuFu sidekataki kaminaduki kana |
O, what am I to do? To Our Lady of the Fertile Hills I would pray; but How hard to it is to string a mulberry garland In this Godless Month… |
Entō Onhyakushu 74
KKS XVIII: 995
Topic unknown.
誰がみそぎ木綿つけ鳥か唐衣たつたの山におりはへてなく
| ta ga misogi yuFutukedori ka karakoromo tatuta no yama ni oriFaFete naku |
For whose lustration is This mulberry cloth? A cockerel Crows upon the Cathay robe Cut out on Tatsuta Mountain, Endlessly calling. |
Anonymous
This poem relies upon an elaborate series of overlapping word plays and images in order to achieve its effect.
First, we have ta ga misogi yuFu tuke ‘For whose lustration ceremony is this mulberry cloth fastened?’. This overlaps with yuFutukedori ka karakoromo ‘A cockerel crows’ (karakoromo sounded to old Japanese ears like a cock’s crow). In turn, this overlaps with karakoromo tatu ‘A Cathay robe cut out’, which overlaps with tatuta no yama ‘Tatsuta Mountain’. Karakoromo was, in fact, a makura kotoba conventionally associated with tatu. A further double meaning is achieved in the final line where oriFaFete ‘endlessly’, is derived from a verb, oriFaFu 織延ふ, meaning ‘weave at great length’.
Additionally, implicit in the poem is the knowledge that a Cathay robe would have been made out of brocade (nisiki 錦), which was an image frequently used in poetry to describe the panoply of scarlet autumn leaves at places such as Tatsuta.
So, the poem presents us with a progression of images: from the simplicity of the sacred mulberry cloth to the richness of the brocade robe; the cockerel used in a religious ceremony, recollecting the lustration, while simultaneously being an embroidered decoration on the Chinese robe, with his crows echoing endlessly through the autumn leaves at Tatsuta, and frozen into an endless crow upon the garment.
Entō Onhyakushu 63
龍田山まがふ木の葉のゆかりとて夕つけ鳥に木枯の風
| tatsuta yama magau ko no ha no yukari tote yūtsukedori ni kogarashi no kaze |
To Tatsuta Mountain’s Blended leaves Is linked This mulberry cloth – upon the cockerel Blows the bitter wind. |