モリシップランの万葉集英訳

VOLUME-11
☆Poet’s name unknown:

紅の
 裾引く道を
  中に置きて
われか通わむ
  君か来まさむ
 (詠み人知らず 巻11-2655)

Kurenai-no
 Suso hiku michi-wo
  Naka-ni okite
 Ware-ka kayowamu
 Kimi-ka kimasamu

Living on either side
Of the street where people go,
Dressed up in a robe –
You’re “too busy”, so shall I come?
I’m too shy, so will you come?
(Vol.11-2655)

There are quite a number of poems listed on Man-Yoh-Shuh without the poet’s name, and this is one of them. It is a unique feature of Man-Yoh-Shuh that the collection lists many poems written by nobilities (Emperors and Empresses inclusive), and high-ranking bureaucrats, as well as by middle-to-lower class government officers, farmers, and soldiers. The anonymous poems were usually those of the government office employees. Man-Yoh-Shuh may be unique in that it reflects the way of life and the state of mind and emotion of people of all classes. This anonymous poem sings about what we may call “a commuting marriage” that was a practice of life of all different couples at that ancient time. The poet here (I think it’s a woman) lives in a city with a busy thoroughfare, and many people come and go with colorful costumes, and calls on to her commuting husband to see which one of them shall come and visit this time around. The practice was that the husband usually visits his wife, but this time he had not come and seen her for some time, with all possible excuses of “man species”, and she says she may come as well – an expression of a woman’s positive action.(per Mr. Nakanishi)
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