今ぞ知るくるしものと人待たむ
里をばかれずとふべかりけり
里をばかれずとふべかりけり
- Roma-ji
-
Ima zo shiru kurushi mono to hito matamu
sato o ba karezu toubekarikeri - English Translation
-
Now at last I know
How bitter a thing it is
To wait for someone;
I should not have stayed away
From the place where one would wait.
- Meaning
- Now at last I truly understand how painful it is to wait for someone who does not come; I should not have kept away from the place where another was waiting.
- Commentary
-
48. Now at Last I Know
A certain man planned to hold a farewell banquet for someone who was about to depart on a journey, and he waited, but that person did not come.
The poem was composed by the man who had been waiting to hold the banquet.
This poem is included in the Kokinshū, in the section “Miscellaneous, Part Two,” and in the headnote it is attributed to Ariwara no Narihira, stating that when Ki no Toshisada was appointed to Awa, a banquet was to be held, but even late into the night he did not appear.
Though it seems to be composed as if Narihira were admonishing himself, it can also be read as reproaching the discourtesy of not appearing at the farewell gathering that had been prepared.
- Source
- Ise Monogatari
- Other
-
- Like a great sacred wand, Drawn by many reaching hands— So you have become; Though I think of you with love, I cannot rely on you.
- A great sacred wand— So you have named me indeed; Though I drift away, Even one borne down the stream At last will find a shallows.
- So tender and young, Fresh young grass, fair to lie on— Thus it seems to me; That someone will bind it close For a pillow—this I think on.
- Like the first young grass, Why are these words so strange to me? So rare and sudden; Without suspicion till now I have thought of nothing at all.