人知れず絶えなましかばわびつつも
無き名ぞとだに言はましものを
無き名ぞとだに言はましものを
- Roma-ji
-
Hito shirezu taenamashikaba wabitsutsu mo naki na zo to dani iwamashi mono o
- English Translation
-
Had our bond been cut
before anyone had known,
though I would grieve still,
I could at least have said, "It was
just rumor, and nothing more"
- Meaning
- If only our love had ended before anyone knew of it, then, grieving as I was, I could at least have said it was nothing but a groundless rumor.
- Commentary
-
Book Fifteen Love Poems V 810
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
The poem laments that because the affair ended after it became known, she cannot even dismiss it as groundless rumor. Had it ended in secret, she could at least have saved face; it captures the pain of public reputation that accompanies love's end.
Ise was the daughter of Fujiwara no Tsugukage, Governor of Ise, and served Onshi, empress of Emperor Uda. She bore Uda a prince and later, with Prince Atsuyoshi, bore the poet Nakatsukasa. One of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals, she has more poems in the Kokinshū than any other woman.
The first line, "unknown to others," sets the hypothetical condition of a secret love.
In the second line mashikaba is a counterfactual condition, answered by mashi in the last line: had it ended.
The third line, "even grieving," shows the wish for at least this much amid the pain.
In the fourth line naki na means a groundless rumor, and dani means "at least."
In the last line mashi is counterfactual and mono o concessive: I could have said so. It laments that, the affair being known, there is no denying it.
- Author
- Ise
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
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