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Audio: NHK Creative Library
Read by LibriVox volunteer Larry Wilson.
Audio courtesy of LibriVox (Public Domain).
蝉丸
これやこの
行くも帰るも
わかれては
しるもしらぬも
逢坂の関
しるもしら
ぬもあふさ
かのせき
これ
- Poem 10
- これやこの
行くも帰るも
わかれては
しるもしらぬも 逢坂の関
Author: Semimaru (dates unknown)
Source: Gosen Wakashū, Miscellaneous
- English Verse Translation
- The stranger who has travelled far, The friend with welcome smile, All sorts of men who come and go
Meet at this mountain stile,— They meet and rest awhile.
— William N. Porter, 1909
- Modern Translation
- So this is it — the Barrier of Ōsaka, where those who leave and those who return, those who know each other and those who do not, all meet and part.
- Commentary
- The Gosen Wakashū's headnote reads, "Composed while living in a hermitage built at the Barrier of Ōsaka, watching the people passing to and fro." This tells us that Semimaru built a small hermitage at the Barrier of Ōsaka, a key crossing point linking the capital to the eastern provinces, and watched the many travelers who passed through. Though light and rhythmic in sound, the poem is grounded in the Buddhist sense of impermanence — the truth that all who meet must eventually part.
- About the Poet
- Semimaru is said to have been the fourth son of Emperor Daigo, yet was abandoned on Mount Ōsaka because of his blindness. He went on to make his living as a biwa-playing minstrel-priest, and according to one theory, his singing voice — accompanied by the biwa — reminded listeners of a cicada's cry (semi), which is how he came to be called "Semimaru."
- Semimaru's Chart of the Heart
-
A chart and a modern-language reflection of the poet's inner feelings.
The Poet's Feelings (A Personal Interpretation)
I watch the travelers come and go, and think —
how fleeting are these brushing sleeves, these chance encounters.
- Poem Illustration
-
This image is based on an illustration from William N. Porter's A Hundred Verses from Old Japan, his 1909 English translation of the Hyakunin Isshu published in England, colorized and reworked using Adobe Firefly (generative AI).