Mate to iu ni tomaranu mono to shirinagara shiite zo oshiki haru no wakare wa

English Translation

Though I know it well
that saying wait will not hold
anything at all
still, past all reason, I grieve
at parting from the springtime

Meaning

I know that saying wait will hold nothing back, and still, for all that, I grieve at parting from the spring.

Commentary

Book Two Spring Poems II 172

Headnote: a poem for the contest at the Empress's palace in the Kanpyo era.
The sixth poem grieving over the end of spring. Knowing that nothing can be held back, the poet grieves regardless. The headnote places it at a contest held at the Empress's palace in the reign of Emperor Uda, the same contest as the sixty-fifth poem of Book One and the hundred and ninth of this one.
The poet is recorded only as unknown.
The time is the end of spring; no place is given.
The occasion was submission to the contest.

The first line means: though one says wait. The season is addressed as though it could be spoken to.
The second line, with a quotative particle, gives what is known: that nothing stops.
The concessive particle in the third line means: knowing it. What reason understands is granted first.
The adverb in the fourth line means by force, in spite of everything, and an emphatic particle governs the attributive adjective. The whole movement of a feeling that reason cannot settle is gathered into that one word.
The poem closes on a noun reaching back to the fourth line, in inversion. Sanesada's hundred and forty-first poem refused all argument and gave only the fact; this one accepts the argument and declares itself unable to follow it, treating the same subject of impermanence from another side.

Author

Unknown Poet

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other