A working space for my notes on Ogura Hyakunin Isshu - a classical Japanese anthology of 100 poems by 100 poets. My thanks to Jane Reichhold and fellow members of the AHApoetry Forum for their encouragement, advice and participation; and also to my fellow fellow members of Eratosphere for their comments and suggestions.

Tuesday 12 June 2012

#016 立ち別れ

立ち別れ
いなばの山の
峰に生ふる
まつとしきかば
今かへりこむ

Tachi wakare inaba no yama no mine ni ōru matsu to shi kikaba ima kaeri komu

Ariwara no Yukihira

if I must depart
and leave for Mount Inaba
through the growth of pines
I'll hear you say "I'm waiting"
and will instantly return 

(trans. Köy Deli)
tall at our parting
on the peak of Mt. Inaba
the pines grow
when I hear you pine for me
I will come home at once 

(trans. Jane Reichhold)



Parsing 

Tachi wakare

prefix | part from
Inaba no yama no
Inaba |of |mountain | of
Mine ni ōru
peak | on | grown
Matsu to shi kikaba
pines / waiting | and | if hear
Ima kaeri komu
now | come home | will

Notes:

Kakekotoba (punning 'pivot' word) : matsu = pines and to wait; Inaba as place name and also 'ina' = 'to go to' and 'ba' = hypothetical particle ('if')

tachi
立ち
to stand, erect, rise


wakare
別れ 
to depart, parting, bid farewell, part from,


Inaba
いなば 
Place name
with word play on ‘ina’ as suffix ‘to go’ ‘journey’ ‘leave’

no
 



yama
mountain


mine
peak


ni
locative case particle
ouru
生ふる 
noun form of verb ‘to grow’


matsu
まつ
1.n. pine tree
2.v. to wait
(kakekotoba)

to shi
とし
and, and the, with, as


kika -ba
きか
hear, heard, ask, inform(ed),


ba
if


ima
今かへりこむ 
now, at the present time, immediately,



kaeri
かへり 
return, go/come home,
form ofかへる kaeru homecoming, returning home

komu
こむ 
aux. verb of intensity ; ‘to do’, will,


1 comment:

  1. Great - So happy to find this - This last line is in Kaguyahima - Makes the song so much more poignant!

    ReplyDelete