忘るらんと思ふ心の疑ひに
ありしよりけに物ぞ悲しき
ありしよりけに物ぞ悲しき
- Roma-ji
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Wasururan to omou kokoro no utagai ni arishi yori ke ni mono zo kanashiki
- English Translation
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"Surely he forgets"—
that thought, that doubt in my heart,
because of this doubt
more than ever I was before
all things fill me with sorrow
- Meaning
- Because of the doubt in my heart that he must already have forgotten me, everything grieves me even more than before.
- Commentary
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Book Fifteen Love Poems V 1362
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the first poem of the sequence on cruelty and forgetting. Doubting that the beloved has already forgotten, the speaker grieves more than ever before. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Anonymous," indicates a poet whose name has not come down.
The first line, "wasururan to," runs to six syllables, one over the count. "Ran" is a present conjecture: "by now he must be forgetting."
The second line, "omou kokoro no," shows that this conjecture lies within the speaker's own heart.
The third line, "utagai ni," means "because of doubt." Doubt that cannot be settled is made the cause of grief.
In the fourth line, "arishi yori ke ni," "ke ni" means "all the more." The past is compared with the present.
The last line, "mono zo kanashiki," closes the kakari-musubi of "zo" with the attributive "kanashiki." Where the preceding poem showed an unwavering heart in smoke that will not bend, from here come poems that doubt the other's heart and fear being forgotten.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Ura ni taku moshio no keburi nabikame ya yomo no kata yori kaze wa fuku tomo
- Next Poem
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Uki nagara hito o ba e shimo wasureneba katsu uramitsutsu nao zo koishiki