わりなくも寝ても覚めても恋しきか
心をいづちやらば忘れむ
心をいづちやらば忘れむ
- Roma-ji
-
Warinaku mo nete mo samete mo koishiki ka kokoro o izuchi yaraba wasuremu
- English Translation
-
How helplessly
both asleep and when awake
I long for you!
Where should I send my heart away
so that I might forget?
- Meaning
- How helplessly I long for you, whether I am sleeping or awake! Where could I send my heart so that I might forget you?
- Commentary
-
Book Twelve Love Poems II 570
Headnote: "A poem from the poetry contest held at the residence of the Empress in the Kanpyō era"
The poet laments that, beyond all reason, he longs for the beloved whether asleep or awake, and asks where he might send his heart so as to forget. Seeing the heart in love as something beyond his control and wishing to send the heart itself away shows how deep the pain of love is. It was composed for the Kanpyō-era Empress's poetry contest and is placed within the run of poems from that contest.
The author is anonymous, and the name has not come down to us.
First line, "warinaku mo": warinashi means unreasonable or helpless, describing a love that no reasoning can resolve.
Second line, "nete mo samete mo": both while sleeping and while awake, that is, constantly. Following the previous poem, 569, which sang of a heart troubled by dreams, it extends the longing to both sleep and waking.
Third line, "koishiki ka": ka is an exclamatory particle, "how I long for you!" The poem breaks here.
Fourth line, "kokoro o izuchi": izuchi means which way or where. The idea is to send the longing heart itself far away.
Fifth line, "yaraba wasuremu": yaru means to send off, and ba marks a hypothetical condition. Mu is conjectural, closing with the self-questioning "where should I send it so as to forget?"
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
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Koishiki ni wabite tamashii mayoinaba munashiki kara no na ni ya nokoramu