Aware to mo kokoro ni omou hodo bakari iwarenubeku wa toi koso wa seme

English Translation

If only I could
put in words as much sorrow
as in my heart
I feel for you, then surely
I would have come to call.

Meaning

If I could have put into words as much of the sorrow as I feel in my heart, surely I would have come to call on you.

Commentary

Book Eight Lament Poems 838

Headnote: "When someone in grief reproached me for not calling."
This is the third poem of the sequence on consoling those who mourn a death, and the last poem of that sequence. It says that if he could put into words as much as he feels in his heart, he surely would have called. According to the headnote, it was composed when someone in grief reproached the poet for not coming to offer condolences.
No author's name is given for this poem in the text, and it follows the author of the preceding poem. The author's lay name was Satō Norikiyo; he took holy orders and traveled through the provinces composing poems.
The scene is the time when the other was grieving over a death, and the place is not recorded.
The direct occasion is being reproached by the other for not coming to call.

In the first line, "aware to mo," "aware" is the feeling of pity and sorrow.
The second line, "kokoro ni omou," means "that I feel in my heart."
The third line, "hodo bakari," means "to that degree," that is, as deeply as he feels it in his heart.
In the fourth line, "iwarenubeku wa," "re" expresses possibility and "nubeku" means "surely could." "Wa" marks a supposition, meaning "if I could put it into words."
In the last line, "toi koso wa seme," "koso" is an emphatic binding particle, completed by "me" in the realis form. "Tou" means to call with condolences. He answers that his sorrow was too deep for words, and so he could not go. Where the preceding poem, 837, was a poem of consolation, this one gives the reason for not calling, singing of the crossed feelings between the one who consoles and the one consoled. The sequence on consoling those who mourn a death closes with this poem.

Author

Saigyō

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other