あはれとて育みたてしいにしへは
世を背けとも思はざりけむ
世を背けとも思はざりけむ
- Roma-ji
-
Aware tote hagukumitateshi inishie wa yo o somuke tomo omowazarikemu
- English Translation
-
When you took me up
with love and raised me tenderly
in those days of old,
surely you never thought, "Go,
turn your back upon the world."
- Meaning
- Long ago, when you raised me with such tender love, surely you never thought I would turn my back on the world.
- Commentary
-
Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems III 1813
Headnote: "Sent to the nurse who had raised me for many years, when I had gone on pilgrimage to Kumano and was about to enter Ōmine."
This is the third of the poems on the bonds between those close to one another. When she raised him lovingly long ago, she never thought he would renounce the world. According to the headnote, it was sent to the nurse who had long raised him, when, having gone to Kumano, he was about to enter Ōmine; as he sets out on severe austerities, he considers the heart of the one who raised him.
The author, "Archbishop Gyōson," is Gyōson. A son of Minamoto no Motohira, he became a monk of Onjōji and underwent severe austerities at Ōmine, Kumano, and elsewhere. He rose to Archbishop and also served as Tendai abbot.
Ōmine is Mount Ōmine in Yamato Province, a place of Shugendō practice where ascetics entered from Kumano and traversed the peaks.
The first line, "aware tote," means "thinking me dear."
The second line, "hagukumitateshi," means "raised with care." "Shi" is the attributive of the past "ki."
The third line, "inishie wa," means "in those days."
The fourth line, "yo o somuke tomo," means "turn from the world." "Somuke" is imperative, spoken from the nurse's point of view.
In the last line, "omowazarikemu," "kemu" is an auxiliary of past conjecture. It carries an apology for going against the hopes of the nurse who raised him. Following the mother of the preceding poem, it is a poem thinking of the one who reared him.
- Author
- Gyōson
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Tarachine no isameshi mono o tsurezure to nagamuru o dani tou hito mo nashi
- Next Poem
-
Kuraiyama ato o tazunete noboredomo ko o omou michi ni nao mayoinuru