わが恋は知らぬ山路にあらなくに
迷ふ心ぞわびしかりける
迷ふ心ぞわびしかりける
- Roma-ji
-
Waga koi wa shiranu yamaji ni aranaku ni mayou kokoro zo wabishikarikeru
- English Translation
-
This love of mine
is no path through unknown hills,
and yet, even so,
how wretched it is, this heart
that wanders lost and astray.
- Meaning
- My love is not some unknown mountain path, and yet how painful it is, this heart that keeps losing its way.
- Commentary
-
Book Twelve Love Poems II 597
Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poet says that his love is not an unfamiliar mountain path, yet his heart keeps losing its way, which is painful. Through the paradox that one should only lose one's way on an unknown mountain path, yet he is lost within his own love, which he ought to know well, he expresses the pain of a love in which he does not know what to do. From here on in this book, three poems by Tsurayuki follow.
Ki no Tsurayuki was a poet of the early Heian period, the son of Ki no Mochiyuki. He was the leading compiler of the Kokinshū and wrote its Japanese preface. He served as Governor of Tosa and is also known as the author of the Tosa Diary. He is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.
First line, "waga koi wa": the same first line as 560 of this book, presenting his own love as the topic.
Second line, "shiranu yamaji ni": an unfamiliar mountain path, given as a place where one easily gets lost.
Third line, "aranaku ni": naku ni is a negative with a sigh, "though it is not." The poem breaks here.
Fourth line, "mayou kokoro zo": a heart lost and not knowing what to do in love. The binding particle zo pairs with keru in the final line. Like "mayoi masareru" in 561 of this book, it sings of bewilderment in love.
Fifth line, "wabishikarikeru": wabishi means painful or desolate, and keru is the attributive resolving zo.
- Author
- Ki no Tsurayuki
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Toshi o hete kienu omoi wa arinagara yoru no tamoto wa nao kōrikeri
- Next Poem
-
Kurenai no furiidetsutsu naku namida ni wa tamoto nomi koso iro masarikere