白雲の八重に重なるをちにても
思はむ人に心隔つな
思はむ人に心隔つな
- Roma-ji
-
Shirakumo no yae ni kasanaru ochi nite mo omowamu hito ni kokoro hedatsu na
- English Translation
-
Even far away
beyond eightfold layers
of white clouds,
do not let your heart grow distant
from those who think of you.
- Meaning
- Even when you are far away, beyond white clouds piled layer upon layer, do not let your heart grow distant from those who think of you.
- Commentary
-
Book Eight Parting Poems 380
Headnote: "Composed and sent to someone leaving for Michinoku"
Sent to someone going down to Michinoku, the poem asks that, even in a place so distant that white clouds pile up eightfold between them, the traveler not let his heart grow distant from those who think of him. Overlaying the distance of the clouds with a distance of the heart, it wishes for unchanging affection.
The author, "Tsurayuki," was Ki no Tsurayuki, one of the compilers of the Kokinshū, who wrote its kana preface.
The first line, "white clouds," is an image of separation and shares its first line with the preceding poem. Where the preceding poem shows clouds parting, this one shows them piling up, capturing the same white clouds in a different form.
The second line, "eightfold layers," means piled many times over, expressing endless distance through the thickness of the clouds.
The third line, "even far away," uses ochi for a distant place, conceding with te mo: even if it be far.
The fourth line, "those who think of you," uses the softening mu to point to those who are likely thinking of the traveler, that is, people in the capital including the poet.
The last line, "do not let your heart grow distant," uses the prohibitive na to plead. It ends on a contrast: though the clouds divide, let the heart not be divided.
- Author
- Ki no Tsurayuki
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Shirakumo no konata kanata ni tachi wakare kokoro o nusa to kudaku tabi kana
- Next Poem
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Wakare chō koto wa iro ni mo aranaku ni kokoro ni shimite wabishikaru ramu