浅茅生を尋ねざりせば忍ぶ草
思ひ置きけむ露を見ましや
思ひ置きけむ露を見ましや
- Roma-ji
-
Asajiu o tazunezariseba shinobugusa omoiokikemu tsuyu o mimashi ya
- English Translation
-
Had I not called there
where the low reeds grow so thick,
would I have seen the dew
that with such deep thoughts was left
on the shinobu fern?
- Meaning
- Had I not visited that place overgrown with low reeds, would I ever have seen the dew laid with deep feeling on the shinobu fern?
- Commentary
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Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems III 1735
Headnote: "Reply."
This is the fourth of the poems on the shinobu fern, a reply to the preceding poem. Had he not visited that dwelling thick with low reeds, he would never have seen the dew laid with such feeling on the fern. It answers the other's jest with a jest, saying that he learned of the secret longing only because he too visited there.
The author, "Captain of the Left Asamitsu," is Fujiwara no Asamitsu. A son of Fujiwara no Kanemichi, he rose to Major Counselor and was also Captain of the Left.
The first line, "asajiu o," is a neglected spot overgrown with low reeds, the dwelling where the two met.
The second line, "tazunezariseba," means "had I not visited." "Seba" answers "mashi" in the last line to form a counterfactual, the same pattern as "oto sezariseba" in Tsunenobu's reply.
The third line, "shinobugusa," takes up the first line of the preceding poem and closes the run of fern poems begun three poems before.
The fourth line, "omoiokikemu," means "that must have been laid with deep feeling." "Oki," to settle, is an associated word for dew, and "kemu" is an auxiliary of past conjecture.
In the last line, "tsuyu o mimashi ya," "ya" is rhetorical. Meaning "would I have seen it? No," it answers the preceding poem's "what sort of dew" by saying he himself is the one who saw it.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Asateru
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Shinobugusa ika naru tsuyu ka okitsuramu kesa wa ne mo mina arawarenikeri
- Next Poem
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Nagaraemu to shimo omowanu tsuyu no mi no sasuga ni kiemu koto o koso omoe