Ogi no ha no soyogu goto ni zo uramitsuru kaze ni utsurite tsuraki kokoro o

English Translation

Each time the reed leaves
rustle in the wind I have
resented it — this
heart of yours, hard and turning
whichever way the wind goes

Meaning

Each time the reed leaves rustle in the wind I have resented it — this hard heart of yours, turning whichever way the wind goes.

Commentary

106 The Reed Leaves

The late Prince of the Ministry of Military Affairs had courted this daughter of Taira no Nakaki before the affair recorded earlier, and composed "Ogi no ha no soyogu goto ni zo uramitsuru kaze ni utsurite tsuraki kokoro o". The same prince also composed "Asaku koso hito wa miruarame Sekikawa no tayuru kokoro wa araji to zo omou", and her reply was "Sekikawa no iwama o kuguru mizu asami taenubeku nomi miyuru kokoro o". Since for all his suit she would not see him, he came again on a bright moonlit night and composed "Yonayona ni izu to mishikado hakanakute irinishi tsuki to iite yaminamu". Then one time he dropped a fan, and picking it up she saw written on it, in a hand she did not know, "Wasuraruru mi wa warekara no ayamachi ni nashite dani koso kimi o uramine"; so she wrote beside it "Yuyushiku mo omooyuru kana hitogoto ni utomarenikeru yo ni koso arikere" and sent it to him. On another occasion she composed "Wasuraruru Tokiwa no yama no ne o zo naku akino no mushi no koe ni midarete", and his reply was "Naku naredo obotsukanaku zo omooyuru koe kiku koto no ima wa nakereba". And when the same prince composed "Kumoi nite yo o furu koro wa samidare no ame no shita ni zo ikeru kai naki", her answer was "Fureba koso koe mo kumoi ni kikoekeme itodo harukeki kokochi nomi shite". That is the whole of the section.
The Prince of the Ministry of Military Affairs headed that ministry. Taira no Nakaki served as Assistant Governor of Ōmi; the hundred and fifth section tells of his daughter and the priest Jōzō, and the fifty-seventh of her fallen circumstances. The events of this section fall before those of the hundred and fifth.
The setting is the period of the prince's suit. The reed leaves tell us it is autumn.
The prose records nothing further of what prompted it, saying only that he composed it in courting her.
He went on to further poems, and the section opens out into a long exchange.

The opening means each time the reed leaves rustle; the reed had long been the plant that sounds in the wind.
An emphatic particle governs the verb of resentment that follows.
The verb in the fourth line means to be turned by the wind, and also to change one's mind, so that leaves shifting and a heart shifting are one word.
The closing breaks off without a verb. Every time he hears the reeds he is reminded of her inconstancy. It is a poem of grievance, and it makes its charge through the sound of a plant rather than through any accusation.

Source

Yamato Monogatari

Other