恋しさに死ぬる命を思ひ出でて
問ふ人あらばなしと答へよ
問ふ人あらばなしと答へよ
- Roma-ji
-
Koishisa ni shinuru inochi o omoiidete tou hito araba nashi to kotae yo
- English Translation
-
Longing for you so,
when this life of mine is spent,
should someone recall
and come asking after me,
answer that I am no more.
- Meaning
- If someone remembers this life of mine, worn out by longing for you, and comes asking after me, tell them I am no longer in this world.
- Commentary
-
Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 1236
Headnote: "Sent to Lesser Captain Shigemoto."
This is the third poem of the sequence of love exchanges. The speaker asks the beloved: if anyone remembers me, dead of longing, and asks after me, tell them I am gone. According to the headnote, it was sent to Lesser Captain Shigemoto.
No author is named in the original; continuing from the preceding poem, it is by "Anonymous," and the name has not come down to us. Shigemoto in the headnote is Fujiwara no Shigemoto, son of the Major Counselor Fujiwara no Kunitsune. "Lesser captain" refers to a lesser captain of the Palace Guards.
In the first line, "koishisa ni," the particle "ni" expresses cause: "because of longing."
The second line, "shinuru inochi o," means "a life that dies of longing." The hyperbole of dying for love shows the depth of feeling.
The third line, "omoiidete," uses the same word as "omoiidekeru" in the second line of the preceding poem. There it was the lover who remembered; here it is someone who, after the speaker's death, remembers and asks.
The fourth line, "tou hito araba," is conditional: "if someone should ask."
The last line, "nashi to kotae yo," is an imperative: "answer that I am no more." By entrusting the beloved with announcing the speaker's own death, the poem thrusts the pain of love upon the beloved.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Kimi dani mo omoiidekeru yoiyoi o matsu wa ikanaru kokochi ka wa suru
- Next Poem
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Wakarete wa kinō kyō koso hedatetsure chiyo o hetaru kokochi nomi suru