命をばあだなるものと聞きしかど
つらきがためは長くもあるかな
つらきがためは長くもあるかな
- Roma-ji
-
Inochi o ba ada naru mono to kikishikado tsuraki ga tame wa nagaku mo aru kana
- English Translation
-
This life of ours, they say,
is a fleeting, fragile thing—
so I had heard, and yet
for the sake of one so cold
how long it proves to be
- Meaning
- I had heard that life is fleeting, yet for the sake of one so cold to me, how long it turns out to be.
- Commentary
-
Book Fifteen Love Poems V 1364
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the third poem of the sequence on cruelty and forgetting. The speaker had heard that life is fleeting, yet for one suffering over a cold beloved it feels long. 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, "inochi o ba," means "as for life."
The second line, "ada naru mono to," means "a fleeting thing." It sets out the common notion that life is fleeting.
The third line, "kikishikado," means "though I had heard," overturning that notion. In the same stance as 1342, which overturned the notion of fleeting dew with "ada nari to omoishi kadomo," this poem turns reasoning against the notion that life is fleeting.
The fourth line, "tsuraki ga tame wa," means "for the sake of one who is cold."
The last line, "nagaku mo aru kana," closes with the exclamatory "kana." Life, supposedly fleeting, feels long amid such cruelty. The unforgettable longing of the preceding poem shifts into a lament over the length of life.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Uki nagara hito o ba e shimo wasureneba katsu uramitsutsu nao zo koishiki
- Next Poem
-
Izukata ni yuki kakurenan yo no naka ni mi no areba koso hito mo tsurakere