玉かづらはふ木あまたになりぬれば
絶えぬ心のうれしげもなし
絶えぬ心のうれしげもなし
- Roma-ji
-
Tamakazura hau ki amata ni narinureba
taenu kokoro no ureshige mo nashi - English Translation
-
Like jeweled vines
that wind upon many trees—
so it has become;
your unceasing heart for me
brings no sign of joy at all.
- Meaning
- Like vines that wind themselves around many trees, you have come to visit many women; so even if you say your feelings for me have never ceased, it brings me no joy at all.
- Commentary
-
118 Jeweled Vines
A certain man had not visited a woman for a long time. At one point, he said to her, “There is not the slightest feeling of forgetting you. I will come to see you soon.”
The poem was composed by the woman in response to his words.
Even in an age when it was accepted for a man to have many women, a man with a wandering heart must have been difficult for a woman to forgive.
- Source
- Ise Monogatari
- Other
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- Even I, seeing it, Find that long years have now passed— At Sumiyoshi shore, That fair pine upon the bank, How many ages has it known?
- In close affection you know it not—like white waves at Mizugaki's shore; since ages long ago I began to offer praise.
- This keepsake alone now has become hateful— were it not for this, there might come a time when I could at last forget you.
- In Ōmi, at once let the Tsukuma festival be quickly held— I would see how many pots that cold-hearted one will wear.