出でていなば限りなるべみともし消ち
年へぬるかと泣く声を聞け
年へぬるかと泣く声を聞け
- Roma-ji
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Idete inaba kagiri narubemi tomoshi kechi
toshi henuru ka to naku koe o kike - English Translation
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If she should go forth,
then all would be at an end—
put out the torches;
hear the voices that lament,
saying her years were but a flame.
- Meaning
- If the princess’s bier goes forth, it will be the end for her. Extinguish the torches and listen to the voices that weep, saying that her years were but a brief flame.
- Commentary
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Episode Thirty-Nine: "Put out the torches"
There was an emperor known as the Emperor of Saiin. He had a princess named Takaiko. The princess passed away, and on the night of her funeral, a certain man who lived beside her residence set out to view the rites, riding in the carriage of a woman.
Minamoto no Itaru, famed for his fondness for women, also came to observe the funeral. Wishing to glimpse the woman riding in the carriage—its blinds marking it as a lady’s carriage—he tossed a firefly inside.
This poem was composed by the man riding with the woman, who disliked being revealed by the firefly’s light. Though it seems to rebuke such curiosity at a place of mourning for the princess, it also conveys the man’s wish not to have the woman seen.
- Source
- Ise Monogatari
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Ito aware naku zo kikoyuru tomoshi kechi
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