Ito semete omou kokoro o toshi no uchi ni haru kuru koto mo shirasete shi gana

English Translation

This heart of mine, that
presses so — I would have you
know that it may clear,
as spring itself comes on within
the compass of the old year.

Meaning

This heart of mine, that presses so — I would have you know it may yet clear, as spring itself comes on within the old year.

Commentary

102 The Exchange on Spring Coming within the Year

Sending word that the seasonal division fell within the old year and that she should come, the Assistant Master sent a poem. No answer came. Before long — perhaps there was some bond from a former life in it — he sent another. To that too there was no answer.
The author was a daughter of Fujiwara no Tomoyasu. The Assistant Master is her son Fujiwara no Michitsuna. The woman is not named in the text. The seasonal division marks the turn from one season to the next; in a year such as this, when the first day of spring fell before the new year, spring arrived while the old year still ran.
It is the twelfth month of the second year of Tenen, about the time when the first day of spring fell within the old year, and the place is the woman's house.
Having sent word that the seasonal division fell within the old year and that she should come, he sent this poem.
No answer came. Before long he sent another: "Kai nakute toshi kurehatsuru mono naraba haru ni mo awanu mi to mo koso nare."

The opening means very urgently, putting the strength of the feeling first. The second names the heart he wishes her to know of, and the third carries into the phrase within the year, which rests on the fact that in this year the first day of spring fell before the new year began. The verb in the fourth means both that spring comes and that a heart clears, and on it the poem turns: as spring comes within the old year by the calendar, so may this heart clear within it. The close expresses the wish to make her know. A quirk of the calendar is carried straight over into a plea of love — the pattern that governs this whole exchange, in which some fact of the season supplies the material of the appeal. Since the poem accompanied an invitation made on the pretext of the seasonal division, the calendar runs through both the invitation and the verse.

Author

Fujiwara no Michitsuna

Source

Kagero Nikki

Other