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Audio: NHK Creative Library
Read by LibriVox volunteer Larry Wilson.
Audio courtesy of LibriVox (Public Domain).
鎌倉右大臣
世の中は
つねにもがもな
渚こぐ
あまの小舟の
綱手かなしも
あまのをふ
ねのつなて
かなしも
よのなかは
- Poem 93
- 世の中は
つねにもがもな
渚こぐ
あまの小舟の 綱手かなしも
Author: Minister of the Right of Kamakura (1192–1219)
Source: Shin Chokusen Wakashū, Travel
- English Verse Translation
- I love to watch the fishing-boats Returning to the bay, The crew, all straining at the
oars, And coiling ropes away; For busy folk are they.
— William N. Porter, 1909
- Modern Translation
- I wish the world could stay just as it is forever. How moving it is to watch the small fishing boats being towed along the shore.
- Commentary
- This poem was composed by Minamoto no Sanetomo, third shogun of the Kamakura shogunate, around the age of twenty, as he gazed out over the beaches near Kamakura. Amid an age steeped in a sense of impermanence, it reveals a ruler's tender regard for the simple, everyday lives of ordinary people.
- About the Poet
- Minamoto no Sanetomo was the son of Minamoto no Yoritomo, founder of the Kamakura shogunate, and Hōjō Masako. He succeeded his elder brother Yoriie and became the third shogun of the Kamakura shogunate at the age of only twelve. Though he stood at the head of the samurai, Sanetomo loved waka poetry and longed for a peaceful world. Tragically, he was assassinated at the young age of twenty-eight by his nephew Kugyō, cutting his life short — a killing believed to have been entangled in a struggle for power.
- Minister of the Right of Kamakura'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)
By the shore where the waves keep coming in,
I watch the same unchanging life go on.Seeing the man pulling his small boat,
I pray these calm, quiet days will continue.
- 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).