君しまれ道の行き来を定むらん
過ぎにし人をかつ忘れつつ
過ぎにし人をかつ忘れつつ
- Roma-ji
-
Kimi shi mare michi no yukiki o sadamuran suginishi hito o katsu wasuretsutsu
- English Translation
-
Of all people, you
are to order the comings
and goings on the road?
you who, even as you pass,
forget the one of days gone by
- Meaning
- Of all people, are you the one to set the order of comings and goings on the road, while forgetting, one after another, those who have passed from your life?
- Commentary
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Book Fifteen Love Poems V 1397
Headnote: "When someone I once knew told me he was setting out as procession marshal for the Kamo Festival and would pass by."
This is the third poem of the sequence on a severed bond. Hearing that a former lover will serve as marshal of the Kamo Festival procession, she asks with irony whether he will set the order of the road while forgetting those of the past. According to the headnote, a man she had once known sent word that he was setting out as procession marshal of the Kamo Festival and would pass by. The text gives no author name, and it is arranged as a poem by Uma no Naishi continuing from the preceding poem.
The author, "Uma no Naishi," was a daughter of Minamoto no Tokiakira, Provisional Head of the Left Stables. She served the Priestess Consort Kishi, Princess Senshi, and Higashisanjō-in Senshi, and became a palace attendant when Teishi was made empress of Emperor Ichijō.
The Kamo Festival is the festival of Kamigamo and Shimogamo Shrines held on the middle Day of the Rooster in the fourth month, also called the Aoi Festival. The procession marshal was the envoy who managed the order of the festival procession.
The first line, "kimi shi mare," is a contraction of "kimi shimo are": "you, of all people."
The second line, "michi no yukiki o," means "the comings and goings on the road" where the procession passes.
The third line, "sadamuran," means "you are to set in order?" It names the marshal's duty, and the poem breaks after the third line.
The fourth line, "suginishi hito o," means "the one who has passed," that is, herself, the former lover. It echoes the procession "passing" along the road.
The last line, "katsu wasuretsutsu," means "while forgetting all the same." Inverted from the third line, it shows afterward the irony that he orders the comings and goings on the road yet has forgotten the comings and goings of people. Where the preceding poem answered the question of whether she had forgotten, this one retorts that it is he who forgets.
- Author
- Uma no Naishi
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
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Tsurakaraba koishiki koto wa wasurenade soete wa nadoka shizugokoro naki
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Hana sakanu kuchiki no soma no somabito no ikanaru kure ni omoiizuran