あだ言の葉に置く露の消えにしを
あるものとてや人の訪ふらん
あるものとてや人の訪ふらん
- Roma-ji
-
Adakoto no ha ni oku tsuyu no kienishi o aru mono tote ya hito no touran
- English Translation
-
On the leaves of words,
those idle words, the dew once set
has vanished away;
do you think it lingers still,
that you come to call on me?
- Meaning
- Like dew on the leaves of your empty words, I have already vanished. Do you think I still remain, that you come calling on me now?
- Commentary
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Book Fifteen Love Poems V 1345
Headnote: "In reply to a woman whose promises had come to nothing, when she wrote to me after a long time."
This is the tenth poem of the dew sequence. The speaker, vanished like dew on leaves of empty words, answers a long-awaited letter with irony, asking whether she thinks he still remains. According to the headnote, a woman whose promises had come to nothing wrote after a long interval, and this was his reply.
The author, "Fujiwara no Nagatō," was a son of Fujiwara no Tomoyasu, Governor of Ise, and a younger brother of the Mother of Michitsuna, author of the Kagerō Diary. He is also known as the poetry teacher of the monk Nōin.
The first line, "adakoto no," means "of empty words."
The second line, "ha ni oku tsuyu no," moves from the "ha" of "koto no ha" (words) to the dew that settles on leaves. As in the preceding poem, "leaves of words" and dew are paired.
The third line, "kienishi o," means "though, like dew, my feelings have already vanished." "O" is concessive.
The fourth line, "aru mono tote ya," means "thinking it still remains," and the particle "ya" expresses doubt.
The last line, "hito no touran," closes the kakari-musubi of "ya" with the attributive "ran." Where the preceding poem lamented that tears keep settling for one whose heart has drifted, this poem declares the dew already gone, and the roles of the one who waits and the one awaited are reversed.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Nagato
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Ima kon to iu koto no ha mo kareyuku ni yonayona tsuyu no nani ni okuran
- Next Poem
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Uchihaete i ya wa neraruru Miyagino no kohagi ga shitaba iro ni ideshi yori