(大伴坂上郎女の歌二首)
黒髪に 白髪(ｼﾗｶﾐ)交じり 老(ｵ)ゆるまで かかる恋には いまだあはなくに
(Two poems by Otomo No Sakanoue No Iratsume)
I haven’t ever fallen in such a love as this,
Until I’ve got so old as to see some grey hair mixed in with black hair like this.
(大伴坂上郎女の歌二首)
黒髪に 白髪(ｼﾗｶﾐ)交じり 老(ｵ)ゆるまで かかる恋には いまだあはなくに
(現代語訳)
黒髪に白髪がまじり、老いる日まで、こんな恋にまだ逢ったこともなかったのに。
(Two poems by Otomo no Sakanoue no Iratsume)
I haven’t ever fallen in such a love as this,
Until I’ve got so old as to see some grey hair mixed in with black hair like this.
恋といっても年齢によってその性質は異なってくるだろう。年を重ね新たな恋の発見があったのかもしれない。万葉集の中心的な編纂者であり、優れた歌人である甥の大伴家持ではないか、とする説もあるようだが本稿の域を越える。家持は、坂上郎女の歌を高く評価し、女性歌人として最多の84首を万葉集に収録した。全体でも家持自らと柿本人麻呂に次ぐ3位。歌人として、お互いを尊敬し合える間柄であったというのが本当のところではないだろうか。
The nature of love changes with age. Perhaps she discovered a new love as she grew older. There is a theory that it was her nephew, Otomo no Yakamochi, who was a central compiler of the Manyoshu and an excellent poet, but this goes beyond the scope of this article. Yakamochi highly praised Sakanoue no Iratsume’s poems, and included 84 of them in the Manyoshu, the most of any female poet. Overall, she is third after Yakamochi himself and Kakinomoto no Hitomaro. The truth is that they had a relationship in which they respected each other as poets.
