思ふとも恋ふとも逢はむものなれや
結ふ手もたゆく解くる下紐
結ふ手もたゆく解くる下紐
- Roma-ji
-
Omou to mo kou to mo awamu mono nare ya yuu te mo tayuku tokuru shitahimo
- English Translation
-
However much I yearn
however much I love, could we
ever meet again
yet till my tying hands grow tired
my under-sash comes loose
- Meaning
- However much I yearn and love, can we ever meet? No; and yet my under-sash keeps coming undone until my hands grow tired of tying it.
- Commentary
-
Book Eleven Love Poems I 507
Headnote: "Topic unknown"
Drawing on the folk belief that an under-sash coming undone by itself is a sign of meeting the beloved, the poem laments that though the lovers cannot meet however much the poet yearns, the sash keeps loosening again and again. The exaggeration of hands growing weary from retying it carries the helplessness of one made to hold a futile hope.
First line, "However much I yearn": omou to mo means however much I think of you.
Second line, "however much I love, could we": kou to mo awamu means "though I love, could we meet?", repeating to mo with the first line to show the strength of feeling.
Third line, "ever meet again": nare ya is rhetorical, meaning "can we meet? no," and the poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "yet till my tying hands grow tired": yuu te mo tayuku means until the hands that retie it grow weary; tayushi means tired or languid.
Fifth line, "my under-sash comes loose": tokuru shitahimo, the under-sash that comes undone, ends on a noun. A sash loosening of itself was taken as an omen of meeting the beloved. The "inserted cord" of poem 541 of this book likewise entrusts love to the tying of cords.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
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