同じくはわが身も露と消えななん
消えなばつらき言の葉も見じ
消えなばつらき言の葉も見じ
- Roma-ji
-
Onajiku wa waga mi mo tsuyu to kienanan kienaba tsuraki koto no ha mo miji
- English Translation
-
If it is the same,
let me too vanish like dew
and be gone at last;
once I vanish, those cruel
leaves of words I shall not see
- Meaning
- If it comes to the same, I wish I too would vanish like the dew. Once I am gone, I will no longer have to see your cruel words.
- Commentary
-
Book Fifteen Love Poems V 1343
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the eighth poem of the dew sequence. The speaker wishes to vanish like the dew, for then the beloved's cruel words would no longer have to be seen. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Fujiwara no Motozane," was a poet of the mid-Heian period and one of the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets. His rank rose no higher than Junior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade.
At the end of the last line the text carries the note "〈朱〉／," which is not part of the poem and has been removed.
The first line, "onajiku wa," means "if it is all the same."
In the second line, "waga mi mo tsuyu to," "mo" carries the sense "I too," like the dew sung in the poems before.
The third line, "kienanan," joins the irrealis of the perfective "nu" to the wishing particle "namu": "I wish I would vanish." The poem breaks after the third line.
The fourth line, "kienaba tsuraki," repeats "kie" from the third line and turns it into a supposition: "once I vanish."
In the last line, "koto no ha mo miji," "ji" is a negative conjecture. The "ha" (leaf) in "koto no ha" (words) is associated with dew: as dew vanishes from the leaf, so if the speaker vanishes, the cruel words will not be seen.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Motozane
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Ada nari to omoishi kadomo kimi yori wa mono wasure senu sode no uwatsuyu
- Next Poem
-
Ima kon to iu koto no ha mo kareyuku ni yonayona tsuyu no nani ni okuran