逢ふ事も涙に浮かぶ我が身には
死なぬ薬も何にかはせん
死なぬ薬も何にかはせん
- Roma-ji
-
Au koto mo namida ni ukabu waga mi ni wa
shinanu kusuri mo nani ni ka wa sen - English Translation
-
Even meeting you
floats on tears—my very self;
to one like me,
what use is the drug that grants no death?
- Meaning
- Even the thought of meeting you rises upon my tears; to one like me, what meaning is there in a drug that grants immortality?
- Commentary
-
After Princess Kaguya had gone to the moon, the heartbroken Emperor composed this poem.
The Emperor had the elixir of immortality that Princess Kaguya left behind, together with this poem, carried by a man called Iwakasa to the “mountain nearest to heaven,” with many soldiers, and ordered them to burn it at the summit.
Since then, that mountain has been called the “Mountain of Fushi,” a pun on fushi (immortality) and Fuji.
- Source
- Taketori Monogatari
- Other
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- Beneath tangled weeds, years have passed for one like me— how could I ever behold a jeweled dais?
- Now at this moment, when I don the heavenly robe— only now I know how dear you were to me.
- Like a boat borne on waves of Matsuyama’s sea, washed in and then left— soon it comes to emptiness.
- Like a plover on waves of Matsuyama’s shore, my traces go on to the capital, yet I cry with sound alone.