春山の友鴬の泣き別れ
帰ります間も思ほせ我れを
帰ります間も思ほせ我れを
- Roma-ji
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Haruyama no tomouguisu no nakiwakare kaerimasu ma mo omōse ware o
- English Translation
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On the hills of spring
like the warblers side by side
crying as they part—
even as you journey home
think of me, I pray, think of me.
- Meaning
- Like the paired warblers on the spring hills that part with their cries, we part in tears—so even on your way home, please keep me in your thoughts.
- Commentary
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Book Ten Spring Love Poems 1890
Headnote: "Spring Love Poems"
This poem overlays the paired warblers calling on the spring hills with a lover who departs in tears, asking him to think of the speaker even on the way home. It stands at the head of the Spring Love Poems. The "naki," calling, of the paired warblers in the upper lines leads as a preface into the "naki," weeping, of parting, entrusting the sorrow of farewell to an emblem of spring. The warbler's song, sung as spring's joy in the miscellaneous poems, is sung in the love poems as a voice of parting tears.
Kakinomoto no Hitomaro was a court poet of the Asuka period, active under Empress Jitō and Emperor Monmu. The left note records that this poem comes from the Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection, and it is uncertain whether it is Hitomaro's own work or a poem by someone else that he recorded.
The first line, "of the spring hills," sets the scene.
The second line, "the companion warblers," refers to warblers in company, overlaying a pair of birds with a pair of lovers.
The third line, "nakiwakare," plays on the warbler's "naki," calling, and the human "naki," weeping, and the upper lines serve as a preface to it.
In the fourth line, "kaerimasu ma mo," "masu" is an honorific auxiliary, showing concern for the lover on his way home.
In the last line, "omōse ware o," "omōsu" is the honorific of "omou," and the imperative expresses a plea. By inversion "ware o," me, is placed last, strengthening the wish not to be forgotten.
- Author
- Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
- Source
- Manyoshu
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Waga yado no kemomo no shita ni tsukuyo sashi shitagokoro yoshi utate kono koro
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Fuyugomori haru saku hana o taorimochi chitabi no kagiri koiwataru ka mo