飽かざりし袖の中にや入りにけむ
わが魂のなき心地する
わが魂のなき心地する
- Roma-ji
-
Akazarishi sode no naka ni ya irinikemu waga tamashii no naki kokochi suru
- English Translation
-
Into your sleeve,
from which I could not part,
has it slipped away?
I feel as though my soul
has gone out of me entirely.
- Meaning
- Did my soul slip into your sleeve, which I could not bear to leave? I feel as if it has gone out of me.
- Commentary
-
Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems II 992
Headnote: "Sent after I had talked with a woman friend and we had parted"
Sent after the poet had talked with a woman friend and parted from her, this poem says that in her reluctance to part, her soul seems to have slipped into her friend's sleeve, leaving her feeling hollow.
Drawing on the ancient belief that the soul leaves the body to go to the one it longs for, it expresses the lingering feelings of parting from a friend with rich emotion.
The author, "Michinoku" as written in kana, is Michinoku, a woman of the early Heian period about whom little is known.
The first line, "from which I could not part," uses shi, the attributive of the past ki: "which never satisfied me."
The second line, "into your sleeve," uses the interrogative ya, answered by kemu in the third line.
The third line, "has it slipped away?", ends with a break.
The fourth line, "my soul," names what has been lost.
The last line, "I feel as though ... gone," describes the sensation of emptiness.
- Author
- Michinoku
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
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