我が恋は言はぬばかりぞ難波なる
葦のしの屋のしたにこそ焚け
葦のしの屋のしたにこそ焚け
- Roma-ji
-
Waga koi wa iwanu bakari zo Naniwa naru ashi no shinoya no shita ni koso take
- English Translation
-
This love of mine is
only left unspoken, like
at Naniwa
in a hut of thatch and reed
the fire burning down below
- Meaning
- It is only that I do not speak of my love. Like the fire kindled low in a reed-thatched hut at Naniwa, it burns on deep within me.
- Commentary
-
Book Eleven Love Poems I 1063
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the first poem of a sequence on unceasing longing sung through scenes of the water's edge and the sea. Her love is merely unspoken; like a fire kindled low in a reed hut at Naniwa, it burns within. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Koben," was a lady-in-waiting of the mid-Heian period who served Princess Yūshi, daughter of Emperor Go-Suzaku. She was the mother of the poet Yūshi Naishinnō-ke no Kii.
The first line, "waga koi wa," is the same first line as in 1029, 1030, and 1036.
The second line, "iwanu bakari zo," means "it is only that I do not say it," and the poem breaks here.
The third line, "Naniwa naru," means "at Naniwa," a place sung for its reeds.
In the fourth line, "shinoya" is a humble hut roofed with reeds or bamboo grass.
In the last line, "shita" pivots between the bottom of the hut and the depths of the heart. The emphatic "koso" is resolved by "take." As if taking up "kienu wa hito no omoi" from 1060, Motozane's poem, it sings of a fire burning beneath the heart, akin to "shitakogare" in 992, Hitomaro's poem. The next poem, by Ise, opens with the same first line, "waga koi wa."
- Author
- Koben
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Tare zo kono Miwa no hibara mo shiranaku ni kokoro no suki no ware o tazunuru
- Next Poem
-
Waga koi wa ariso no umi no kaze o itami shikiri ni yosuru nami no ma mo nashi