藤波の咲く春の野に延ふ葛の
下よし恋ひば久しくもあらむ
下よし恋ひば久しくもあらむ
- Roma-ji
-
Fujinami no saku haru no no ni hau kuzu no shita yoshi koiba hisashiku mo aramu
- English Translation
-
Where the wisteria
blooms in waves on the spring fields,
like the creeping vines,
if I love hid underneath,
long, so long, will it go on.
- Meaning
- Like the kudzu vines that creep beneath the spring fields where the wisteria blooms in waves, if I love only secretly within my heart, it will be a long, long time.
- Commentary
-
Book Ten Spring Love Poems 1901
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Love Expressed Through Flowers"
Taking as its preface the kudzu whose roots stretch long beneath the spring fields, this poem sighs that if one keeps loving secretly within the heart, that love will go on for a long time. It conveys the pain of a hidden love that cannot be shown, and a sigh at how long it will last. Overlaying wisteria and kudzu, two vining plants, it impresses the image of a love that stretches on.
The first line, "fujinami no," describes wisteria clusters swaying like waves.
The second line, "in the spring fields where they bloom," is hypermetric.
The third line, "the creeping kudzu," from the kudzu's long roots beneath the ground, makes the upper lines a preface leading into "shita," beneath.
In the fourth line, "shita yoshi koiba," "shita" means within the heart, secretly, and "yo" marks passage: if I love secretly within.
In the last line, "hisashiku mo aramu," "mu" is conjecture, closing with the thought of how long a hidden love will last.
- Source
- Manyoshu
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Ume no hana sakichiru sono ni ware yukamu kimi ga tsukai o katamachigateri
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Haru no no ni kasumi tanabiki saku hana no kaku naru made ni awanu kimi ka mo