つれもなき人をやねたく白露の
おくとは嘆き寝とはしのばむ
おくとは嘆き寝とはしのばむ
- Roma-ji
-
Tsure mo naki hito o ya netaku shiratsuyu no oku to wa nageki nu to wa shinobamu
- English Translation
-
Heartless as you are
how it galls me, like white dew
settling, I arise
and sigh, and lying down
still I yearn for you
- Meaning
- Galling as it is, must I go on for someone so cold, rising to sigh as the white dew settles and lying down only to yearn?
- Commentary
-
Book Eleven Love Poems I 486
Headnote: "Topic unknown"
A love poem about going on, though galled by it, sighing on rising and yearning on lying down for a beloved who is cold to the poet. The dew's "settling" is pivoted with a person's "rising," expressing the ache of thinking of the beloved all day, from morning to night. Irritation at the beloved's coldness and an inability to forget coexist in this wavering heart.
First line, "Heartless as you are": tsure mo naki means cold or indifferent. Poem 521 of this book begins with the same phrase, "tsure mo naki hito wo," singing of love for a cold beloved.
Second line, "how it galls me, like white dew": netaku means vexingly. The particle ya is interrogative and forms a kakari-musubi with mu at the end.
Third line, "settling, I arise": shiratsuyu no, the white dew, is a preface leading to oku, since dew is said to settle. Poem 470 of this book likewise pivots the dew's settling with a person's rising.
Fourth line, "and sigh, and lying down": oku is a pivot word meaning both dew "settling" and a person "rising," giving the sense of sighing on waking in the morning.
Fifth line, "still I yearn for you": nu to wa shinobamu means yearning when lying down to sleep at night, paired with rising in the fourth line to express a love that knows no day or night.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Karikomo no omoi midarete ware kou to imo shirurame ya hito shi tsugezu wa
- Next Poem
-
Chihayaburu Kamo no yashiro no yūdasuki hitohi mo kimi o kakenu hi wa nashi