モリシップランの万葉集英訳

VOLUME-14
☆Poet’s name unknown:

にほ鳥の
 葛飾早稲を
  贄すとも
そのかなしきを
  外に立てめやも
 (詠み人知らず 巻14-3386)

Nihodori-no
 Katsushika Wase-wo
  Nihesutomo
Sono kanashiki-wo
 To-ni tate meyamo

Even at the time
We perform a serious rite,
Offering early rice,
Why would I keep you outside,
Waiting, standing, my darling!
(Vol.14-3386)

For Japanese people, at ancient time, but also still today in the 21st century, rice is an important, almost sacred, kind of staples, and people can’t do without. You may realize from an example from much later days of Edo Era (17-19th centuries), when Tokugawa Shogunate Government ruled, and set up a Japanese version of caste system, people were classified in the order of priority of Shi (士 = Samurai)、Noh(農 = farmers)、Koh (工 = artisans), and Shoh (商 = tradesmen). You will see farmers (growing rice and other grains and vegetables), whether in big or small scale, are placed No.2 in the hierarchy.  Some of the tradesmen became to attain a success through their own efforts to be called merchants, but had to remain in the bottom in the social status.
Myself, I must admit, I cannot leave one single grain of boiled rice remaining attached and unpicked in my rice bowl after the meal, and pick each one grain to consume, while I may not feel much of guilt leaving orts of other food items like fish, or veg., if not in a lot. Perhaps I was brought up that way from my childhood in the countryside.

So much so, people in Nara Age in 7th century, and afore and beyond, used to do religious rituals, offering early-reaped rice grains, still unshelled in the stem, in front of Shinto shrine, publicly or at home. It was a sacred ceremony. Having said that, the singer here cannot suppress her feeling toward her loved one, visiting from afar(?).
The early rice offered in the ritual here is locally produced and harvested in Katsushika (a local area covering eastern Tokyo, southern Saitama and western Chiba of today).  A young maiden, assigned to act formally in the rite, is torn between her role duty and her love.  

This piece of poem is printed in a calligraphic style on a wooden board erected in the  site of Guhoh-ji Temple, near my home on Mama, Ichikawa City, Chiba Pref.  (See photo which I took.)
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