いにしへはありもやしけむ今ぞ知る
まだ見ぬ人を恋ふるものとは
まだ見ぬ人を恋ふるものとは
- Roma-ji
-
Inishie wa ari mo ya shikemu ima zo shiru
mada minu hito o kouru mono to wa - English Translation
-
Long ago perhaps
Such a thing may have been said—
Only now I know:
To love someone unseen yet,
One whom I have never met.
- Meaning
- Perhaps such a thing existed long ago, but only now have I come to know it: that one may fall in love with someone whom one has never even met.
- Commentary
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111. One Never Yet Seen
There was a certain man. Someone in the household of a high-ranking woman had died.
The poem was composed by the man and sent as if in mourning for the deceased.
It was likely a maid or a relative of the woman who had died. Using this as a pretext, the man sent a poem to a woman he had never met, saying in effect that he had fallen in love with her. It does not seem a very sincere approach.
The poem is included in the Shin Chokusen Wakashū as a poem by an anonymous poet.
- Source
- Ise Monogatari
- Other
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- More than the blossoms, People have proved more fickle— So it has become. Which would I see first to fade, And then long for in my heart?
- My longing so deep, Perhaps my soul has gone forth Out from my own body. If late at night you should see it, Bind my soul and hold it fast.
- As a sign they say The cord beneath should come loose When one is loved so. Yet my under-cord stays tied— So you cannot love as said.
- That I long for you Never again will I say. When the under-cord Comes undone, let people know That alone will tell my love.