しるしなき煙を雲にまがへつつ
夜を経て富士の山と燃えなん
夜を経て富士の山と燃えなん
- Roma-ji
-
Shirushi naki keburi o kumo ni magaetsutsu yo o hete Fuji no yama to moenan
- English Translation
-
Smoke that brings no sign,
I pass it off as clouds, and
night after night,
like the mountain Fuji, I
shall go on burning, surely
- Meaning
- Passing off as clouds the smoke of a love that bears no fruit, night after night I shall surely go on burning, like Mount Fuji.
- Commentary
-
Book Eleven Love Poems I 1008
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the first poem of a sequence on the smoke of love. Passing off as clouds the smoke of a love that brings no result, the speaker will go on burning night after night like Mount Fuji. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Tsurayuki," was a son of Ki no Mochiyuki and one of the compilers of the Kokin Wakashū. He wrote its Kana Preface and composed The Tosa Diary.
The first line, "shirushi naki," means "without effect," a love that never reaches the beloved however deeply one longs.
In the second line, the smoke rises from the fire of love burning in the breast. Mount Fuji was then sung as a mountain that sent up smoke, and love's smoke is likened to it.
The third line, "magaetsutsu," means "making it hard to tell apart," passing love's smoke off as clouds to deceive others' eyes.
The fourth line, "yo o hete Fuji no," means "through night after night," calling up Mount Fuji.
In the last line, "nan" combines emphasis and conjecture: surely I shall go on burning like Mount Fuji. As if taking up the "smoke in the sky" of Kanemichi's preceding poem, the poems of smoke begin, and the next poem by Fukayabu also sings of Fuji, so that the smoke of Fuji appears in two poems in a row.
- Author
- Ki no Tsurayuki
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Waga omoi sora no keburi to narinureba kumoi nagara mo nao tazuneten
- Next Poem
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Keburi tatsu omoi naranedo hito shirezu wabite wa fushi no ne o nomi zo naku