GSS 797
From My Wiki
Previous poem | Volume 12 Contents | Next poem
Text
女につかはしける
Sent to a woman
Biwa Minister of the Left
(99r) 山びこの こゑにたゝでも 年はへぬ わが物思を しらぬ人きけ
Years have passed without raising an echoing voice. Hear of my worries, those who do not know!
Textual Variants
- 女に] 人のもとに（堀・雲・慶・坊）
- たたても] たてても（鳥・貞・堀・雲・坊・承・正・正保・標・新・旧国・全釈・新注・新国）、たてしも（八・増）
- 物思を] 物おもふを（雲）、物おもひ（承）
Other Sources
- 古今和歌六帖２５５２・としへていふ・びはの大臣. First line ほととぎす. Second line こゑにたてても. Third line としへぬる.
Notes
- 山びこの
- Kigin interprets as a 枕詞, and Nakayama specifies 「声にたててといはん料のみなり」. More recent commenters all assign a meaning to this phrase though -- 山彦の声に立つ is interpreted as "A voice to raise echoes". Kifune's interpretation is that this means the poet is only speaking in the depths of his heart where no echoes (or responses from the woman) occur. Tokuhara is the only one to explicitly link echoes with a response from the woman, though.
- 声にたたでも
- The reading of たた vs たて does not make a material difference to the interpretation of the poem (Katagiri and Tokuhara are the only ones who do not emend the text). The form たたる instead of 立てる is found in variant texts of KKS 3 as well as in the 万葉集, and may be a dialect or old-fashioned form. The main reading in texts of たてでも is interpreted by Nakayama as meaning that there was a long time where the poet did not say anything, and now he is raising his voice. This is Kifune's reading as well.
- Kudo is alone in reading the phrase unvoiced as たてても, meaning that the poet has been getting the echoes, although his overall reading of the poem seems to be the same as the other scholars.
- しらぬ人きけ
- 「しらぬそなたも、承知してくれよかし」（新抄） . This is how most scholars interpret it, but Katagiri interprets the 人 as anyone who doesn't already know that the poet loves her. The きけ is a 命令形 form; some translations weaken the effect to 聞いてほしい rather than a full voiced command.
Analysis
As can be seen from the notes above, there are some questions in interpreting the overall meaning of the poem. There is general agreement in a contrast between the first and second sentences of the poem, but overall it could be "I haven't said anything up to now, now I want you to hear my feelings" or "I've shouted my feelings without any kind of response for years, now I want you to hear about my sorrow".
KKS 521 つれもなき人を恋ふとて山彦の答へするまで嘆きつるかな
