Kore naranu koto o mo ōku tagaureba uramimu kata mo naki zo wabishiki

English Translation

There are so many
other things besides this one
that you fail to keep
that I am left with no way
no direction, to resent

Meaning

There are so many other promises you fail to keep besides this one, that I am left with no direction — no way at all — to resent.

Commentary

89 The Icefish at the Weir

While a man who held the post of Master of the Right Horse Bureau was visiting a woman known as the Lady of Shuri, he sent word that the direction was closed to him and he could not come, and she composed "Kore naranu koto o mo ōku tagaureba uramimu kata mo naki zo wabishiki". Later, when he had stopped coming altogether, she composed "Ikade nao ajiro no hio ni koto towamu nani ni yorite ka ware o towanu to", and his reply was "Ajiro yori hoka ni wa hio no yoru mono ka shirazu wa Uji no hito ni toe kashi". From the days when he was still visiting there is a poem she made at an early morning parting, "Akenu tote isogi mo zo suru Ōsaka no kiri tachinu tomo hito ni kikasu na", and one he made when he first began coming, "Ikani shite ware wa kienamu shiratsuyu no kaerite nochi no mono wa omowaji"; her reply to it was "Kakiho naru kimi ga asagao mite shi kana kaerite nochi wa mono ya omou to". After a night together, on going home, he composed "Kokoro o shi kimi ni todomete kinishikaba mono omou koto wa ware ni ya aruramu", and the Lady of Shuri answered with "Tamashii wa okashiki koto mo nakarikeri yorozu no mono wa kara ni zo arikeru". That is the whole of the section.
The Lady of Shuri takes her name from that office. The Master of the Right Horse Bureau headed the office responsible for horses. This section holds eight poems and is not arranged in order of time: the poems from after his visits ceased come first, and the section then turns back to the days when he was still coming.
The setting is the period when he was still visiting.
What prompted the poem was his message that the direction was closed and he could not come.
Afterwards he stopped coming altogether, and the section moves on to the exchange about the icefish.

The first line means: things other than this one. His excuse about the direction is put down as a single instance, with many more behind it.
The verb that follows means to break a promise, and also to avoid a direction, so that it chimes with the excuse he gave.
The word in the fourth line means both a direction and a means, so that having no direction to resent and having no way to resent are the same phrase. She takes the direction he offered and makes it the hinge of her pun.
The closing, with an emphatic particle governing its adjective, says that she would resent him if she could find where to aim. Too many excuses leave the grievance with nowhere to go.

Source

Yamato Monogatari

Other