野とならば鶉となりて鳴きをらむ
かりにだにやは君は来ざらむ
かりにだにやは君は来ざらむ
- Roma-ji
-
No to naraba uzura to narite nakioramu
kari ni dani ya wa kimi wa kozaramu - English Translation
-
If it becomes a field,
I will turn into a quail
and cry there in grief—
would you not come, even then,
if only for the hunt?
- Meaning
- If it should become a wild, overgrown field, I will turn into a quail and cry there in sorrow—would you not come, even if only for the hunt?
- Commentary
-
123 Through Passing Years
There was a certain man. He had long visited a woman who lived in the village of Fukakusa in Yamashiro (now the northern part of Fushimi in Kyoto), but gradually he grew weary of her.
This poem is a reply to the man’s verse: “Through passing years in this village I have dwelt—should I now depart, will it become even more a deep grass field of neglect?” The man, hearing this poem, was moved and abandoned his intention to leave the village.
In response to the man who sought to part, the woman accepts his feeling and says that she will remain, weeping and waiting even for the rare chance of his visit. Moved by her gentleness, the man could not help but feel affection for her once more.
- Source
- Ise Monogatari
- Other
-
- At Yamashiro, the jewel water of Ide I cupped in my hands— yet the trust I placed in you has come to nothing at all.
- Through passing years in this village I have dwelt— should I now depart, will it become even more a deep grass field of neglect?
- What I have in mind I will not speak, but let it come to an end thus— for there is no other one whose heart is the same as mine.
- The road we must go at last, so I had heard— yet I did not think it would be yesterday or today that it would come.