忘れゆく人ゆゑ空をながむれば
絶え絶えにこそ雲も見えけれ
絶え絶えにこそ雲も見えけれ
- Roma-ji
-
Wasureyuku hito yue sora o nagamureba taedae ni koso kumo mo miekere
- English Translation
-
Because of the one
who is forgetting me, I gaze
at the sky, and see
how in broken, scattered wisps
the clouds too drift and vanish.
- Meaning
- When I gaze at the sky because of the one who is forgetting me, I see that the clouds too appear only in broken wisps, like our bond.
- Commentary
-
Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 1295
Headnote: "When love-letter poems were called for in the reign of Nijō-in."
This is the fifth poem of the sequence on love being forgotten. When I gaze at the sky because of the one who is forgetting me, the speaker says, the clouds too appear only in broken wisps. According to the headnote, it was composed when poems in the form of love letters were called for in the reign of Emperor Nijō.
The author, "Norikane, Minister of Justice," is Fujiwara no Norikane. He rose to Minister of Justice and, as a scholar of poetry, wrote the Waka Dōmōshō. "Love letter" in the headnote means a letter of courtship, and Nijō-in refers to Emperor Nijō.
The first line, "wasureyuku," means "the one who is gradually forgetting me." It states the sequence's theme directly in the first line.
In the second line, "hito yue sora o," "yue" means "because of."
The third line, "nagamureba," means "when I gaze, lost in thought." Taking up the clouds in the sky of the preceding poems, it sings of one who watches the clouds.
The fourth line, "taedae ni koso," means "in broken wisps." "Koso" is answered by the perfective form "miekere" in the last line.
In the last line, "kumo mo miekere," "mo" means "the clouds too, like our bond." The poem closes by finding the faltering relationship in the broken clouds.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Norikane
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
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-
Omoiide yo ta ga kanegoto no sue naramu kinō no kumo no ato no yamakaze
- Next Poem
-
Wasurenaba ikeramu mono ka to omoishi ni sore mo kanawanu kono yo narikeri