忘れ草何をか種と思ひしは
つれなき人の心なりけり
つれなき人の心なりけり
- Roma-ji
-
Wasuregusa nani o ka tane to omoishi wa tsurenaki hito no kokoro narikeri
- English Translation
-
The forgetting grass,
I had wondered from what seed
it springs into growth;
it is from the heartless heart
of one so cold to me
- Meaning
- I used to wonder from what seed the forgetting grass could grow. Now I see it is the heart of someone cold to me.
- Commentary
-
Book Fifteen Love Poems V 802
Headnote: "Composed and written when, in the Kanpyō era, the emperor had poems written on a folding screen."
This was composed and written for a folding screen in the Kanpyō era of Emperor Uda. Having wondered what the forgetting grass grows from, the speaker realizes its seed is the heart of a cold lover, drawing a lament of love from the daylily painted on the screen. Where the preceding poem sought to wither with frost the grass growing in the lover's heart, this one finds the very seed of the grass there, and the two form a pair.
The author, "Sosei Hōshi," is the Priest Sosei, a son of Henjō born before his father took vows, with the lay name Yoshimine no Harutoshi. He became a monk at his father's wish, lived at the Urin'in, and later moved to the Ryōin'in in Yamato. He is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.
The first line names the forgetting grass, the same as the first line of the preceding poem, likely painted on the screen.
In the second line ka asks "from what seed," resolved by the attributive shi in the third line.
In the third line shi, attributive of the past ki, means "what I had wondered."
The fourth line, "a heartless person," corresponds to tsure mo naki in the third line of the preceding poem.
The last line, narikeri, expresses realization: the seed was a cold heart.
- Author
- Sosei Hoshi
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Wasuregusa kare mo ya suru to tsure mo naki hito no kokoro ni shimo wa okanamu
- Next Poem
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Aki no ta no ine chō koto mo kakenaku ni nani o ushi to ka hito no karuramu