HomeHyakunin Isshu / Ama no Hara← Tago no UraHana no Iro wa →
OGURA HYAKUNIN ISSHU — POEM No. 7 of 100

Ama no Hara

“The Wide Plain of Heaven” — Abe no NakamaroSource: Kokinshū, Travel · 406
天の原 ふりさけ見れば 春日なる
三笠の山に 出でし月かも
Ama no hara furisake mireba Kasuga naru
Mikasa no yama ni ideshi tsuki kamo
I look up into the wide plain of heaven — is that not the moon
that rose over Mount Mikasa, in Kasuga, my home?
Ama no Hara jacket art

Music Video

ミュージックビデオ
MUSIC VIDEO — COMING SOON

The Story

歌のものがたり
Abe no Nakamaro crossed to Tang China as a student at sixteen and rose to high office under the emperor Xuanzong; this poem was composed at his farewell banquet when, after more than thirty years, he was finally to sail home. The ship was wrecked, and he died in China without ever seeing Japan again — but the poem's moon, the same moon that rose over Mount Mikasa in his hometown, kept shining. Our song carries that moon into the present: anyone who has left home chasing a dream knows the ache of 'I want to go back, but I can't.'

Lyrics

歌詞
Japanese

若き日に 海を渡った

学びの道は 果てしなく遠く

言葉を覚え 位を得ても

夜毎胸に 灯る故郷

褒められるほど 居場所は増えて

増えるほどに 遠ざかる空

天の原 ふりさけ見れば

のぼる月 ひとつきり

海も国も 隔てるけれど

同じ光が ここにある

帰りたい あの山へ

別れの宴 注がれる杯

明日は船出 待ち望んだ朝

なのになぜか 手が震えてる

帰れぬ予感 風が知らせる

潮の匂いに 紛れて落ちる

故郷の訛り 呼ぶ名前

天の原 ふりさけ見れば

春日なる 三笠の月

潮騒に かき消されても

呼んでいる あの稜線

帰りたい 帰れない

夢を追って 町を出た日

振り返らずに 決めたはずなのに

慣れた暮らし 増えた笑顔

ふと夜更けに なる胸の奥

窓の向こうに 同じ月がある

遠いあの人 見てるだろうか

天の原 ふりさけ見れば

あの頃と 同じ月

どんな町も どんな夜も

ひとつ空で 繋がってる

会いたい あの場所へ

帰る場所は もう変わったかもしれない

あの道も あの声も 変わってゆく

それでも月は 変わらずに昇る

ここでもそこでも 同じ顔をして

天の原 ふりさけ見れば

春日なる 三笠の山に

出でし月かも

天の原 ふりさけ見れば

あの山に 昇った月よ

千年前も 今夜の空も

同じ光が 照らしている

帰れなくても この空は ひとつ

会いたい あの場所へ

出でし月かも……

出でし月かも……

English

In my youth, I crossed the sea

The path of learning, endlessly far

I mastered the language, climbed the ranks

Yet each night, my homeland flickers in my heart

The more I'm praised, the more I belong here

And the more I belong, the further the sky recedes

Looking up across the vast plain of heaven

A single rising moon, all alone

The seas and lands may divide us

But the same light shines right here

I want to go home, to that mountain

At the farewell feast, sake fills my cup

Tomorrow I sail—the morning I longed for

Yet somehow, my hand is trembling

A foreboding I'll never return, carried on the wind

Mingled with the scent of the tide, it falls—

The accent of my home, calling out my name

Looking up across the vast plain of heaven

The moon of Mt. Mikasa, in Kasuga

Even drowned by the crashing tides

It's calling me—that mountain ridge

I want to go home, I cannot go home

Chasing a dream, the day I left town

I had decided not to look back

A life I've grown used to, smiles that multiply

Yet suddenly at midnight, something deep stirs in me

Beyond the window, the same moon is there

That distant someone—is she watching it too?

Looking up across the vast plain of heaven

The same moon as back in those days

No matter what town, no matter what night

We're connected by one single sky

I want to see you—that place

The home I return to may have changed by now

That road too, those voices, all are changing

Yet still the moon rises, unchanging

Here or there, wearing the same face

Looking up across the vast plain of heaven

The moon that rose over Mt. Mikasa, in Kasuga

Is the very same moon

Looking up across the vast plain of heaven

That moon that rose over the mountain

A thousand years ago, and the sky tonight

The same light is shining down

Even if I can't go home, this sky is one

I want to see you—that place

The moon that rose...

The moon that rose...

← No. 4 Tago no Ura All Songs Share on 𝕏 No. 9 Hana no Iro wa →