はかなくぞ知らぬ命を嘆きこし
わがかねごとのかかりける世に
わがかねごとのかかりける世に
- Roma-ji
-
Hakanaku zo shiranu inochi o nagekikoshi waga kanegoto no kakarikeru yo ni
- English Translation
-
How vainly I grieved
over a life I could not know
the measure of;
when it was a bond in which
all I had foretold came true
- Meaning
- How vain it was to grieve over a life whose length I could not know, when ours was a bond in which what I had once foretold would come true.
- Commentary
-
Book Fifteen Love Poems V 1392
Headnote: "As a love poem."
This is the third poem of the sequence recalling a past love. In a bond where what she had once said came true, she had grieved, unknowing, over the fleetingness of life; she looks back on that past self. According to the headnote, it was composed as a love poem.
The author, "Princess Shokushi," was a daughter of Emperor Go-Shirakawa. She served as Kamo Priestess and studied poetry under Fujiwara no Shunzei.
The first line, "hakanaku zo," means "in vain," and the particle "zo" governs the third line.
The second line, "shiranu inochi o," means "a life of unknown length."
The third line, "nagekikoshi," closes the kakari-musubi of "zo" with the attributive "shi": "I have grieved." The poem breaks after the third line.
In the fourth line, "waga kanegoto no," "kanegoto" refers to words spoken beforehand, a prediction or promise.
The last line, "kakarikeru yo ni," means "though it was a bond like this." "Yo" refers to the bond between lovers. Where the preceding poem doubted the memory of meeting as a dream, this one looks back on a bond in which her own earlier words came true, seeing her past grief as vain.
- Author
- Princess Shokushi
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Yume ka to yo mishi omokage mo chigirishi mo wasurezu nagara utsutsu naraneba
- Next Poem
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Suginikeru yoyo no chigiri mo wasurarete itou uki mi no hate zo hakanaki