わびはつる時さへものの悲しきは
いづこをしのぶ涙なるらむ
いづこをしのぶ涙なるらむ
- Roma-ji
-
Wabihatsuru toki sae mono no kanashiki wa izuko o shinobu namida naruramu
- English Translation
-
Even at the time
when I have grieved all my grief,
why am I still sad;
for what place, for what longing
do these tears of mine still fall?
- Meaning
- Even now that I have grieved to the end and given up, I still feel sad. What is it in me that still longs, that these tears keep flowing?
- Commentary
-
Book Fifteen Love Poems V 813
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
Though the speaker has grieved to the end and given up, tears still fall, and the poem asks where in the heart longing still remains. Following the longing learned too late in the preceding poem, it looks at feeling that does not vanish even after one thinks one has let go.
In the first line hatsu means to do completely: having grieved to the end and resigned oneself.
In the second line sae means "even": even at such a time.
The third line, "that I am sad," is marked as topic by wa.
In the fourth line izuko means "where," asking what part of the heart still longs; shinobu means to remember with longing.
In the last line ramu asks the cause: for what are these tears? The poem closes with a question.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
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