知る知らぬなにかあやなくわきて言はむ
おもひのみこそしるべなりけれ
おもひのみこそしるべなりけれ
- Roma-ji
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Shiru shiranu nani ka ayanaku wakite iwamu omoi nomi koso shirube narikere
- English Translation
-
Knowing, not knowing
why draw such lines for no cause
why speak of the difference
it is longing alone, its fire
that serves as the guide
- Meaning
- Why do you draw distinctions, for no reason, between knowing and not knowing? It is only the fire of longing that serves as love's guide.
- Commentary
-
Book Eleven Love Poems I 477
Headnote: "Reply"
This is the woman's reply to the preceding poem, 476. Where Narihira lamented loving someone "neither unseen nor truly seen," she retorts that there is no need to distinguish knowing from not knowing, for longing itself is love's guide. Taking up the word ayanaku from his poem and turning it back on him, it is a reply full of wit. It too appears in section 99 of The Tales of Ise.
First line, "Knowing, not knowing": shiru shiranu, whether one knows the other or not, restates and answers "not unseen, yet not truly seen" in the sender's poem.
Second line, "why draw such lines for no cause": nani ka is rhetorical, meaning "why should one say so?" Ayanaku is taken directly from the fourth line of the sender's poem and turned against it.
Third line, "why speak of the difference": waku means to distinguish. Mu, answering nani ka, carries the rhetorical sense, and the poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "it is longing alone, its fire": omoi is a pivot word containing hi, fire, drawing on the idea of a fire lighting the way at night. Koso forms a kakari-musubi with kere at the end.
Fifth line, "that serves as the guide": shirube means a guide. It shares the word with the last line of poem 472 in this book; there the wind is love's guide, here it is the fire of longing.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
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Mizu mo arazu mi mo senu hito no koishiku wa ayanaku kyō ya nagamekurasamu
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Kasugano no yukima o wakete oiidekuru kusa no hatsuka ni mieshi kimi wa mo