我が宿は道もなきまで荒れにけり
つれなき人を待つとせしまに
つれなき人を待つとせしまに
- Roma-ji
-
Waga yado wa michi mo naki made arenikeri tsurenaki hito o matsu to seshi ma ni
- English Translation
-
This dwelling of mine
has fallen into ruin,
the paths overgrown,
while I spent my days waiting
for one so cold and heartless
- Meaning
- My home has fallen into such ruin that no path can be seen, all while I was waiting for someone so cold to me.
- Commentary
-
Book Fifteen Love Poems V 770
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
While he waited for a cold-hearted lover, his house fell into such ruin that the path could no longer be seen. The visible change of an overgrown garden expresses the length and emptiness of the waiting. Here begins a sequence of poems about waiting.
The author, "Archbishop Henjō," is Henjō, whose lay name was Yoshimine no Munesada. A grandson of Emperor Kammu and son of Major Counselor Yoshimine no Yasuyo, he served Emperor Ninmyō as Head Chamberlain but took the tonsure on the emperor's death, later becoming archbishop. He is one of the Six Poetic Immortals and the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.
The first line, "my home," names the place where he waits for his lover.
The second line, "until there is no path," describes a garden overgrown for lack of visitors, hinting that the lover's road has ceased.
In the third line ni keri expresses completion and realization: it has fallen into ruin. The poem breaks here, and the structure is inverted.
The fourth line, "a heartless person," is the lover who does not come.
The last line, "while I waited," gives the cause of the ruin afterward by inversion. The trailing seshi ma ni leaves a lingering mood.
- Author
- Henjō
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Hitori nomi nagame furuya no tsuma nareba hito o shinobu no kusa zo oikeru
- Next Poem
-
Ima komu to iite wakareshi ashita yori omoi kurashi no ne o nomi zo naku