笹の葉にはだれ降り覆ひ消なばかも
忘れむと言へばまして思ほゆ
忘れむと言へばまして思ほゆ
- Roma-ji
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Sasa no ha ni hadare furiōi kenaba ka mo wasuremu to ieba mashite omōyu
- English Translation
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On the bamboo leaves
thin snow scatters, covering them;
"When it melts away,
I'll forget you," so I say,
yet I long for you still more.
- Meaning
- When I say, "Once the thin snow covering the bamboo leaves has melted, perhaps I will forget," I think of you all the more.
- Commentary
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Book Ten Winter Love Poems 2337
Headnote: "Love Expressed Through Snow"
This poem says that when the speaker tries saying love might be forgotten once the snow covering the bamboo leaves melts, the longing grows all the more. Its headnote is "Love Expressed Through Snow." The paradox of love, in which longing mounts the more one tries to forget, is entrusted to the melting of snow.
The first line, "on the bamboo leaves," names the place.
In the second line, "hadare furiōi," "hadare" means thin scattered snow; the line is hypermetric.
In the third line, "kenaba ka mo," "ke" means to melt, "na" is the irrealis of "nu," "ba" marks a supposition, and "ka mo" a question.
The fourth line, "when I say I will forget," names the act.
In the last line, "mashite omōyu," "mashite" means all the more and "omōyu" to come to mind.
- Source
- Manyoshu
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