限なき雲ゐのよそにわかるとも
人を心におくらむやは
人を心におくらむやは
- Roma-ji
-
Kagiri naki kumoi no yoso ni wakaru tomo
hito o kokoro ni okuramu ya wa - English Translation
-
Though far we may part,
beyond the boundless clouded sky,
to distant realms,
shall I leave your heart behind
within my own? Never.
- Meaning
- Though we part for a place as distant as the boundless heavens, I could never leave thoughts of you behind. I will not forget you.
- Commentary
-
Book Eight: Poems of Parting
This poem was likely composed not by the one seeing another off, but by the traveler departing. It expresses the feeling that, however far apart they may be, the speaker will never forget the person left behind.
"Kumoi" literally means the place where the clouds are, that is, the sky, but it also carries the sense of a place far, far away.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- Though we part and go, if on Inaba's mountain peaks the pine trees grow, and I should hear that you still wait, I shall return even now
- The digger wasps cry, in the autumn bush clover fields, at dawn you depart; when shall I await the day the traveler returns?
- As your mother's guard, my heart goes along with you; let that heart alone not be stopped nor held back fast by the barriers on your way.
- This is now the end— the parting road is so sad; the way I would go, if I could choose, is the road of life, of living onward