とへばいふとはねば恨む武蔵鐙
かかる折にや人は死ぬらむ
かかる折にや人は死ぬらむ
- Roma-ji
-
Toeba iu towaneba uramu musashi abumi
kakaru ori ni ya hito wa shinuramu - English Translation
-
If I write, you say too much;
if I do not, you resent me—
Musashi stirrups
hanging on either side:
is it at such a time that one must die?
- Meaning
- If I write, you say it is too much; if I do not write, you resent me—like Musashi stirrups hanging on either side. Is it at such a time as this that one must die?
- Commentary
-
Episode Thirteen: "Musashi stirrups"
A man in Musashi wrote to a woman in the capital, saying in his letter, "If I speak of it, it is shameful; if I do not speak, it is painful," and on the outside he wrote "Musashi stirrups."
In reply, the woman wrote, "Though you hang your Musashi stirrups in earnest and place your trust in me, not to write is cruel, and to write is vexing too," expressing her feelings that even receiving his letters was troublesome.
The man, unable to bear it, composed this poem.
Because the woman had appealed to her feelings using words associated with Musashi stirrups and pivot-words, the man laments, "Is it at such a time that one must die?"
- Source
- Ise Monogatari
- Other
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- Musashino— do not burn it today; in the young grass my beloved husband hides, and I too lie hidden.
- Musashi stirrups— though you hang them in earnest, and place your trust in me, not to write is cruel, to write is vexing too.
- Rather than thus not die of love at all, better to have been a silkworm— with but a jewel-cord’s span of life.
- When night breaks, I would thrust it in the tub— that foolish cock, crying too soon, has sent my husband away.