玉の緒よ絶えなば絶えね長らへば
忍ぶることの弱りもぞする
忍ぶることの弱りもぞする
- Roma-ji
-
Tama no o yo taenaba taene nagaraeba shinoburu koto no yowari mo zo suru
- English Translation
-
O thread of my life,
if you must break, break now!
For if I live on,
this strength to keep love hidden
may weaken and give way
- Meaning
- O thread of my life, if you are to break, then break now. If I live on, my strength to keep this love hidden may weaken and fail.
- Commentary
-
Book Eleven Love Poems I 1034
Headnote: "On 'Hidden Love,' from a hundred-poem sequence."
This is the second poem of the sequence on love long kept hidden. Let the thread of life break if it must, for if she lives on, her power to hide her love will weaken; the poem sings of hidden love at its limit. According to the headnote, it was composed on the topic "Hidden Love" within a hundred-poem sequence.
The author, "Princess Shokushi," was a daughter of Emperor Go-Shirakawa. She served as High Priestess of the Kamo Shrines and later took holy orders. She studied poetry under Fujiwara no Shunzei.
The poem was chosen by Fujiwara no Teika for the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
In the first line, "tama no o," the cord that strings jewels, means life, and "yo" is a call of address.
In the second line, "naba" is a supposition built on the perfective "nu," and "ne" is its imperative: if you are to break, then break. The poem breaks here. Cord and breaking are associated words.
The third line, "nagaraeba," means "if I live on," and "nagarau" also belongs with the cord through its sense of length.
The fourth line, "shinoburu koto no," means "my hiding of love."
In the last line, "mo zo" voices fear: it might happen. "Yowaru," to weaken, is likewise associated with the cord, so breaking, lasting, and weakening all join the thread of life. Where Yakamochi's poem, 1025, vowed not to show his feeling even if life vanished, this one binds life and hiding from the opposite direction: to live on is to fail at hiding. The poems that follow come from the same hundred-poem sequence.
- Author
- Princess Shokushi
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Omoitsutsu henikeru toshi no kai ya naki tada aramashi no yūgure no sora
- Next Poem
-
Wasurete wa uchinagekaruru yūbe kana ware nomi shirite suguru tsukihi o