Yuyushiku mo omooyuru kana hitogoto ni utomarenikeru yo ni koso arikere

English Translation

It strikes me as ill-
omened, this — that it should be
a world in which each
woman in her turn is put
aside and grown cold towards

Meaning

It strikes me as ill-omened — that this should be a world in which each woman in her turn is put aside.

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 same: she has read the other woman's poem on the fan.
What prompted hers was seeing "Wasuraruru mi wa warekara no ayamachi ni nashite dani koso kimi o uramine" written there. She wrote beside it and sent it to him.
The section goes on to a further exchange on another occasion.

The opening exclaims that it strikes her as ill-omened; the word means inauspicious, a thing to be shunned.
The third line means each in turn, every one of them — the woman of the fan, and herself.
What follows is being grown cold towards, in the passive: it is the women who are put aside.
The closing, with an emphatic construction governing its verb, says that this is what such a world is. Every woman who has to do with this prince is set aside. Instead of stating her own grievance she produces another woman's poem as evidence.

Source

Yamato Monogatari

Other