荒小田を荒鋤き返し返しても
人の心を見てこそやまめ
人の心を見てこそやまめ
- Roma-ji
-
Arao da o ara sukikaeshi kaeshite mo hito no kokoro o mite koso yame
- English Translation
-
As a wasted field
is ploughed and roughly turned, and turned,
turned over again,
until I have seen your heart
I shall not cease this love
- Meaning
- As a neglected field is ploughed and turned over and over again, so will I keep trying, and I will not give up until I have seen what is truly in your heart.
- Commentary
-
Book Fifteen Love Poems V 817
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
As a neglected field is ploughed over again and again, the speaker will test the lover's heart repeatedly and will not give up until its truth is seen. The image of tilling a field in the first two lines forms a preface leading to kaeshi, and the patient repetition of farm work is layered with a heart that cannot give up.
The first line names a small neglected field, o being a prefix.
The second line, "roughly turning the soil with a spade," together with the first forms a preface to kaeshi in the third line.
The third line, "even turning it again," repeats kaeshi from the second line to mean over and over.
The fourth line names the lover's heart, whose truth he seeks to confirm.
The last line resolves koso with me, the perfective of mu, showing firm resolve: only after seeing it will I stop.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
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