花がたみめならぶ人のあまたあれば
忘られぬらむ数ならぬ身は
忘られぬらむ数ならぬ身は
- Roma-ji
-
Hanagatami menarabu hito no amata areba wasurarenuramu kazu naranu mi wa
- English Translation
-
Like a flower basket
with its many woven eyes,
you have many loves
to compare, and so forget
someone as small as I am
- Meaning
- Like the close-set weave of a flower basket, you have so many women to compare that you must have forgotten me, someone who hardly counts at all.
- Commentary
-
Book Fifteen Love Poems V 754
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
The poem laments that the lover, with so many women to compare, must have forgotten the insignificant speaker. The fine weave of a flower-gathering basket calls up the image of a man looking over many women.
The first line names a basket for gathering flowers, used almost like a pillow word leading to me, the weave of the basket.
In the second line me means both the weave of the basket and the eyes, and narabu means both lined up and compared side by side.
The third line, "since there are many," gives the reason: there are many women around him.
In the fourth line nu is perfective and ramu conjectural: I must have been forgotten. With the inversion the poem breaks here.
The last line, "I who do not count," is the inverted subject of the fourth line, placed at the end to deepen the self-abasement.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
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