なげきこる山とし高くなりぬれば
つらづゑのみぞまづつかれける
つらづゑのみぞまづつかれける
- Roma-ji
-
Nageki koru yama to shi takaku narinureba tsurazue nomi zo mazu tsukarekeru
- English Translation
-
Now that my sorrows,
cut like firewood, are piled
high as a mountain,
it is my cheek on my hand
that I lean on first of all
- Meaning
- My sighs, cut and stacked like firewood, have grown as high as a mountain, so the first thing I lean on is a staff for my cheek, my chin propped in my hand.
- Commentary
-
Book Nineteen Miscellaneous Forms 1056
Headnote: "Topic unknown"
Taking up the "forest of sighs" of the preceding poem, the poet says that her sighs, like firewood, have piled up mountain-high, so that, as a woodcutter leans on his staff, she can only rest her cheek on her hand in brooding. Linking firewood, cutting, mountain, and staff through woodcutting imagery is the wit that gives the poem its haikai quality. It is the second poem of the "nageki" sequence.
The author was a woman known as Taifu; nothing further is known of her.
First line, "Nageki koru," is a pivot word joining "nageki," sighs, and "nageki," firewood, with "koru," to cut, an associated word. It takes up the "forest of sighs" of the preceding poem.
Second line, "yama to shi takaku," uses emphatic "shi": as high as a mountain.
Third line, "narinureba," is causal: since it has become so.
Fourth line, "tsurazue nomi zo," names the cheek resting on the hand in brooding, echoing the staff used on mountain paths. "Zo" is an emphatic particle.
Fifth line, "mazu tsukarekeru," uses "tsuku," to lean on a staff, and ends in the attributive "keru" in response to "zo."
- Author
- Taifu
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Negigoto o sa nomi kikikemu yashiro koso hate wa nageki no mori to narurame
- Next Poem
-
Nageki o ba kori nomi tsumite ashihiki no yama no kai naku narinu beranari