今はとて天の羽衣着る折ぞ
君を哀れと思ひ知りぬる
君を哀れと思ひ知りぬる
- Roma-ji
-
Ima wa tote ama no hagoromo kiru ori zo
kimi o aware to omoi shirinuru - English Translation
-
Now at this moment,
when I don the heavenly robe—
only now I know
how dear you were to me.
- Meaning
- Now, as I don the heavenly robe at this final moment, I have come to know anew how dear you are to me.
- Commentary
-
This poem was composed by Princess Kaguya and sent to the Emperor before she was taken by the messengers from the moon and returned to the lunar capital.
Princess Kaguya tasted a little of the “elixir of immortality” brought by the messengers and sent the rest to the Emperor as a keepsake. When the messengers made her put on the heavenly robe, her gratitude to the bamboo cutter and her feelings for the Emperor vanished, and she rose up to the moon.
Princess Kaguya had been cast down to the earth because she had committed some offense on the moon.
- Source
- Taketori Monogatari
- Other
-
- The homeward royal return weighs heavy on my heart, for she turns away and stays behind— Kaguya-hime.
- Beneath tangled weeds, years have passed for one like me— how could I ever behold a jeweled dais?
- Even meeting you floats on tears—my very self; to one like me, what use is the drug that grants no death?
- Like a boat borne on waves of Matsuyama’s sea, washed in and then left— soon it comes to emptiness.