降る雪の空に消ぬべく恋ふれども
逢ふよしなしに月ぞ経にける
逢ふよしなしに月ぞ経にける
- Roma-ji
-
Furu yuki no sora ni kenubeku kouredomo au yoshi nashi ni tsuki zo henikeru
- English Translation
-
Like the falling snow
that would vanish in the sky,
so I pine for you,
yet with no way we can meet,
months on months have passed me by.
- Meaning
- I long for you until I feel I might vanish like snow melting in the sky—yet with no way to meet, the months have gone by.
- Commentary
-
Book Ten Winter Love Poems 2333
Headnote: "Winter Love Poems"
This poem laments that though the speaker longs so much as to nearly vanish, like snow melting in the air, months have passed with no way to meet, and it stands at the head of the Winter Love Poems. The snow vanishing in the sky, sung in 2317 of the winter miscellaneous poems, becomes in the love poems a figure for a heart about to fade. It comes from the Hitomaro Collection, and just as the spring miscellaneous poems at the head of the book began with Hitomaro Collection poems, the winter love poems also begin with one.
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, "like the falling snow," names the comparison.
In the second line, "sora ni kenubeku," "ke" means to vanish and "nubeku" means about to; the upper lines form a figure for a love about to fade.
In the third line, "kouredomo," "domo" is adversative: though I long.
In the fourth line, "au yoshi nashi ni," "yoshi" means a means: with no way to meet.
In the last line, "tsuki zo henikeru," "zo" is an emphatic particle in kakari-musubi with the attributive "keru."
- Author
- Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
- Source
- Manyoshu
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