tamaboko no michi wa tōku mo aranaku ni tabi to shi omoeba wabishikarikeri
The jewelled-spear straight Road distant Is not, but even so, When I think of travelling How desolate I am! [i]
564
[i] See: Sent to his Junior Consort when she was away from the palace. たまぼこのみちははるかにあらねどもうたてくもゐにまどふころかな tamaboko no/ michi wa haruka ni / aranedomo / utate kumoi ni / madou koro kana ‘Down a jewelled-spear straight / Road’s distance / You are not, yet / Somehow, among the clouds, extremely / Lost am I, these days!’ Former Emperor Suzaku (Shinkokinshū XIV: 1248)
Hidden in the grass on the path o’er the plains[i]
Left
なつくればのべのくさばもしげりあひていづれかみちとみえぞわかれぬ
natsu kureba nobe no kusaba mo shigeriaite izure ka michi to mie zo wakarenu
When the summer comes, The blades of grass upon the plains Grow lushly together, so Which is the path to take I cannot tell by looking!
9
Right
をちこちのみちみえぬまでなつののはくさばしげくもなりにけるかな
ochikochi no michi mienu made natsuno no wa kusaba shigeku mo narinikeru kana
Until both distant and nearby Paths I cannot see Across the summer plains Have the blades of grass so lushly Grown, indeed!
10
Do they not know the features of the summer plains conveyed by ‘Hidden in the grass on the path o’er the plains’? While both Left and Right use ‘blades of grass’, this puts one in mind of fresh grass sprouting in spring showers; and then of the two of them, the Right uses ‘distant and nearby’, which is nothing more than an archaic expression from the Age of Gods used for leg-wearying mountain paths, while at least the Left does not have a tangled argument.
ato miezu natsuno no kusaba shigeku tomo yamaji o kakete madoubeshi ya wa
No folk’s tracks visible Upon the summer plains—the blades of grass Lush, yet I wonder if upon mountain paths One would lose ones way?
