浦にたく海人だにつつむ恋なれば
くゆる煙よ行く方ぞなき
くゆる煙よ行く方ぞなき
- Roma-ji
-
Ura ni taku ama dani tsutsumu koi nareba
kuyuru keburi yo yukukata zo naki - English Translation
-
Since it is a love
that even the fisherfolk
burning on the shore
keep hidden, the smoke of it
smolders with nowhere to go
- Meaning
- Since even the fisherfolk who burn their fires on the shore keep this love hidden, its smoke smolders with nowhere to go.
- Commentary
-
Part One: Suma
Oborozukiyo answered his poem with this one, sending only a few words folded into Chunagon no Kimi's letter. Having been pardoned and returned to service at court, she could not correspond openly. That her feeling had not ended is all held in this one short poem.
"Burning on the shore" is the fire of the salt-makers, taking up his "salt-burning fisherfolk." "Tsutsumu" is to keep something wrapped and hidden—a love conducted out of sight. "Kuyuru" plays smoke smoldering against regret. "Nowhere to go" says the feeling has no outlet. Fire and smoke alone are enough to state the closed condition of a love that cannot be acknowledged.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
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Urabito no shio kumu sode ni kurabe mi yo
namiji hedatsuru yoru no koromo o