みちのくのしのぶもぢずり誰ゆゑに
みだれそめにし我ならなくに
みだれそめにし我ならなくに
- Roma-ji
-
Michinoku no shinobu mojizuri tare yue ni
midare somenishi ware naranaku ni - English Translation
-
In Michinoku, the shinobu-rubbed pattern—
for whose sake did it begin to tangle? It was not I who did so.
- Meaning
- The twisted pattern of shinobu-rubbing from Shinobu in Michinoku is tangled again and again; just so, my heart has begun to be thrown into turmoil—not by anyone else’s doing but yours alone.
- Commentary
-
Episode One: "Shinobu no midare"
Like “Like the pale young purple of Kasuga Plain, / a robe rubbed with dye—my hidden thoughts are tangled beyond all measure,” this poem is composed by likening a heart that cannot remain at peace from longing to the tangled pattern of shinobu-rubbing.
In the narrative, it appears alongside the above poem from long ago as a verse of the same purport.
- Source
- Ise Monogatari
- Other
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- Where no one comes to see them, mountain-village cherry blossoms— let them bloom only after the others have fallen.
- Like the pale young purple of Kasuga Plain, a robe rubbed with dye—my hidden thoughts are tangled beyond all measure.
- Neither waking nor sleeping, I spent the night till dawn; calling it a thing of spring, I gazed away the hours.
- If you have any thought of me, then in the hut overgrown with weeds we would sleep; even with my sleeves spread upon the bare mat.