Let's read the 百人一首 - Printable Version

Let's read the 百人一首 - Printable Version

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Let's read the 百人一首 - yudantaiteki - 2014-08-13

I'm making one change; rather than the historical romaji I'm writing it in Hepburn based on the pronunciation used today, as in the karuta game. This is based on Edo-period pronunciation but is mostly how it would be pronounced in modern Japanese.

Poem 14

Text
陸奥の michinoku no
しのぶもぢずり shinobu-mojizuri
誰ゆゑに tare yue ni
乱れそめにし midare-some-ni-shi
われならなくに ware nara-naku ni

Notes

陸奥 - A region of Japan, see Michinoku.

しのぶもぢずり - This is a word for a type of clothing, also called しのぶずり. It gets its name from using dye of the 忍草 (Davallia mariesii, a type of fern) to make a sort of tie-dye like pattern that was described as 乱れる. The もぢ is a word for a type of cloth, and the ずり is from the verb 刷る, referring to the act of printing the design on the cloth with the die. This is yet another example of 序詞, a common poetic technique of these early, pre-Kokinshu poets.

乱れそめにし - As I said in the previous note, the 乱れ describes the dyeing (染め) of the clothing. However, the word そめ also suggests 初め, the start of a romantic relationship. 乱れる was often also used in poetry to describe passionate feelings. The に is the perfective/completion suffix ぬ in 連用形, and the し is the past-tense suffix in 終止形.

われ（我）ならなくに - This is an old (even in the context of old Japanese) form that essentially means ないのに. なら is the copula なり in 未然形. This connects to the above section, in a reversed sentence structure known as 倒置法.

Translation: Who was it that randomly dyed the Shinobu cloth from Michinoku -- it was not me. (Who started the passion in my heart -- it wasn't me.)

Author: 河原左大臣（かわらさだいじん）, i.e. 源融（みなもとのとおる）, 822-895. He was a son of Emperor Saga, made a commoner with the Minamoto surname (i.e. a Genji). (The translation of this poem on that Wikipedia site is a meaning, rather than literal, translation.)

Source: 古今集, from the fourth volume of love poems, 724. However, the fourth line there is 乱れむと思ふ in some manuscripts -- the 伊勢物語 also has this poem in the form it is in the 百人一首. The prose preface is "Circumstance unknown."

Commentary: The idea of 忍ぶ恋 ("secret love") is common in the Kokinshu poetry -- most love poems in the Japanese poetry tradition are about the difficulties or sorrows of love, not more positive things.

Let's read the 百人一首 - yudantaiteki - 2014-08-13

Here's an example of an Edo-period woodblock print of this poem, this is from something called the 百人一首註. As you can see it has a picture of the poet and the poem in large characters, then an explanation on the top.

Let's read the 百人一首 - yudantaiteki - 2014-08-13

If you want to try reading the poem in the woodblock, here's a transcription. I will just put the kana if it's the same as modern (although it may look a little different), but if it's a 変体仮名 I will put the kanji it's derived from.
みち能く乃
しのぶ
もぢ
春"り
た連
ゆへ尓
み多"れそめ
尓しわ連
なら那くに

Let's read the 百人一首 - Woodsei - 2015-08-04

Yudan, this is very useful! Much better than just reading the poems with a translation. Hope you haven't scratched the project completely; you know you'll have at least one intrigued user who'll keep following the thread Smile

Thanks a bunch. Can't believe I haven't seen this thread in all the time I've been here.