曇り日の影としなれる我なれば
目にこそ見えね身をば離れず
目にこそ見えね身をば離れず
- Roma-ji
-
Kumoribi no kage to shi nareru ware nareba me ni koso miene mi oba hanarezu
- English Translation
-
Like a shadow cast
on a clouded day—that is what
I have now become;
though you cannot see me there,
I never leave your side.
- Meaning
- I have become like a shadow on a cloudy day: though you cannot see me, I never leave your side.
- Commentary
-
Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 728
Headnote: "Topic unknown"
Wasted by love until he is as faint as a shadow on a cloudy day, the speaker says he still clings to the beloved's side. Drawing on the way a shadow stays with the body, the poem expresses a single-minded devotion that never leaves though it cannot be seen.
Following the reproaches of the preceding poem, it likens a love that cannot part from the beloved to a shadow. Like "waga omokage ni hazuru mi" in 681 of this book, it depicts a body worn thin by love.
The author, written in kana as "Shimotsuke no Omune," is Shimotsuke no Omune, a man of the early Heian period whose life is not well documented.
The first line, "kumoribi no," means "on a cloudy day," suggesting that the shadow cannot be clearly seen.
The second line, "kage to shi nareru," means "having become a shadow," "shi" being an emphatic particle and "ru" the attributive form of the continuative "ri."
The third line, "ware nareba," means "since I am one who," referring to a body wasted by love.
The fourth line, "me ni koso miene," means "though not visible to the eye," the particle "koso" closed by "ne," the perfective form of the negative "zu," leading on adversatively.
The final line, "mi oba hanarezu," means "I do not leave your body," overlaying the way a shadow clings to the body with a love that cannot part.
- Author
- Shimotsuke no Omune
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
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