Hito o omou kokoro wa kari ni aranedomo kumoi ni nomi mo nakiwataru kana - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

人を思ふ心は雁にあらねども
雲居にのみもなきわたるかな

Roma-ji: Hito o omou kokoro wa kari ni aranedomo kumoi ni nomi mo nakiwataru kana
English Translation: Though my heart that loves
is surely not a wild goose,
still, only in the
far-off clouds do I go on,
crying as I pass along.
Meaning: My heart that longs for her is not a wild goose, yet like the geese crying as they cross the distant sky, I go on weeping, far out of reach.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 585

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poet says that his longing heart is not a wild goose, yet just as geese cross the distant sky crying, he goes on weeping for someone far beyond reach. The image of wild geese arriving in autumn is overlaid with a heart longing for someone out of reach, and naki carries both "calling" and "weeping." In this part of the book, poems that bring in autumn images are gathered together.
Kiyohara no Fukayabu was a poet of the early to mid Heian period, the grandfather of Kiyohara no Motosuke and great-grandfather of Sei Shōnagon. He served as Assistant in the Bureau of Palace Artisans and was known as a skilled koto player.

First line, "hito o omou": "longing for someone," modifying "heart" in the second line. The line has six syllables, one more than the norm.
Second line, "kokoro wa kari ni": kari, the wild goose, arrives from the north in autumn and is sung of as crossing high in the sky, calling.
Third line, "aranedomo": ne is the perfective form of the negative zu, "though it is not a goose."
Fourth line, "kumoi ni nomi mo": kumoi is where the clouds are, the distant sky, implying a place far and high beyond reach.
Fifth line, "nakiwataru kana": naki is a pun on the geese "calling" and the poet "weeping." Wataru overlays "to cross the sky" and "to go on doing." Like the previous poem, 584, it uses autumn imagery, as the scene moves from rice leaves on an autumn night to geese in the autumn sky.
Author: Kiyohara no Fukayabu
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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