Shirarene ba mi o uguisu no furiidetsutsu nakite koso yuke no ni mo yama ni mo

English Translation

Since you do not know
my heart, I make my body
a warbler and lift
my voice and go off crying,
over the fields, the mountains.

Meaning

Since you will not understand, I make myself a warbler, lift my voice, and go off crying — over the fields and over the mountains.

Commentary

6 The Birth of Michitsuna and the Woman of Machi no Kōji

The year turned, and in the first month two or three days went by without a visit. The author, meaning to move elsewhere, left word that the poem should be given to him if he came, and went away. A reply came to it; and in the course of such exchanges further troubles gathered, so that she passed the spring and summer unwell. At the end of the eighth month she bore a son. Kaneie's attentions at that time appeared, at least, to be very warm.
Kaneie was the third son of Fujiwara no Morosuke and at this time Assistant Commander of the Right Guards; he would rise to be regent and chancellor. The author was a daughter of Fujiwara no Tomoyasu, and the son born this year is Fujiwara no Michitsuna. Tomoyasu had gone down to Mutsu as its governor in the previous year.
It is the first month of the ninth year of Tenryaku, and the place is the author's dwelling.
Two or three days had passed without a visit. Meaning to move elsewhere, she left this poem behind with instructions that it be handed to Kaneie when he came.
He answered with "Uguisu no ada nite yukamu yamabe ni mo naku koe kikaba tazunu bakari zo." Afterward further troubles gathered, she passed the spring and summer unwell, and at the end of the eighth month bore Michitsuna. In the ninth month comes the scene in which she finds a letter written to another woman.

The opening means that her feelings are not understood, and it carries a reproach for the lapse in his visits. The second line likens her own person to a warbler. The third means to lift up the voice, and applies at once to a bird's song and to human weeping. The verb in the fourth line means both to weep and to sing, and this single word is the hinge of the poem. The emphatic particle binds the verb of going, declaring the departure outright. The last line leaves the destination open; it follows the warbler's habit of moving from mountain to village and out again in spring, while conveying the sulky feeling that she will go wherever she pleases. The form of a poem left behind serves perfectly for a reproach that could not be spoken face to face.

Author

The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna

Source

Kagero Nikki

Other