玉鉾の道はつねにもまどはなむ
人を訪ふとも我かと思はむ
人を訪ふとも我かと思はむ
- Roma-ji
-
Tamahoko no michi wa tsune ni mo madowanamu hito o tou tomo ware ka to omowamu
- English Translation
-
On the jeweled-spear road,
may you lose your way each time;
then, though it be to her
you go, I could think
it was me you came to see.
- Meaning
- May you always lose your way on the road—for then, even if you set out to visit someone else and came to me instead, I could believe it was me you meant to see.
- Commentary
-
Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 738
Headnote: "Topic unknown"
To a man who has stopped visiting, the speaker wishes that he would always lose his way on the road, so that even if he strayed to her while going to another woman, she could believe he had come to see her. The poem expresses the grief of visits that have ceased through a twisted wish.
Following the exchange of the two preceding poems, the same author sings of a heart longing for her lover's visit. Poems on visits and partings continue with the next two, 739 and 740.
The author, "Yoruka no Ason," is Fujiwara no Yoruka. The daughter of Fujiwara no Takafuji, posthumously named Grand Minister, and the nun Keishin, she served as a lady of the Palace Attendants' Office before becoming its deputy director.
The first line, "tamahoko no," is a pillow word for "michi" (road).
The second line, "michi wa tsune ni mo," means "the road you travel, always."
The third line, "madowanamu," means "may you lose your way," "namu" being a particle expressing a wish directed at another; the poem pauses here.
The fourth line, "hito o tou tomo," means "even if it is someone else you visit," a concessive hypothesis.
The final line, "ware ka to omowamu," means "I will think it was me," closing with the volitional "mu."
- Author
- Fujiwara no Yoruka
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Ima wa tote kaesu koto no ha hiroiokite onoga mono kara katami to ya mimu
- Next Poem
-
Mate to iwaba nete mo yukanamu shiite yuku koma no ashi ore mae no tanahashi