うらぶれて物な思ひそ天雲の
たゆたふ心我が思はなくに
たゆたふ心我が思はなくに
- Roma-ji
-
Uraburete mono na omoi so amakumo no tayutau kokoro waga omowanaku ni
- English Translation
-
Do not brood in gloom,
dejected and lost in thought;
like clouds of heaven
a heart that drifts and wavers
is not the heart I hold
- Meaning
- Do not sink into gloom and brood; I hold no heart that drifts and wavers like the clouds of heaven.
- Commentary
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Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2816
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Questions and Answers"
Do not droop and brood, for the speaker has no heart that wavers like the clouds in the sky: this poem comforts an anxious partner and pledges an unchanging heart. Mindful of the other's uncertainty, it conveys the speaker's own constancy.
This is a question-and-answer poem, paired with the next by the left note "the two poems above." The next poem takes up this poem's first line, "uraburete," just as it is, and replies that it will brood no more, since water is said to flow even in a waterless stream. Where this poem draws its image from drifting clouds, the next answers with the water of a river, so the images of sky and river form a pair.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather the love poems of people whose names have not come down to us.
First line, "uraburete": "drooping in spirit." "Ura" means the heart, and the word describes a heart sinking without strength. The same word stands in the first line of the next poem.
Second line, "mono na omoi so": "do not brood." "Na ... so" expresses a prohibition, and a pause falls after the second line.
Third line, "amakumo no": "of the clouds of heaven," a pillow word attached to "tayutau" because clouds drift.
Fourth line, "tayutau kokoro": "a heart that drifts and wavers." "Tayutau" describes things swaying without settling, or a heart that hesitates and wanders.
Fifth line, "waga omowanaku ni": "though I do not feel so." "Naku ni" is the nominalized form of the negative "zu" followed by "ni," closing the poem as if gently admonishing the other, with the assurance that the speaker's heart will not change.
- Source
- Manyoshu
- Prev Poem
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Makenagaku ime ni mo miezu taenu tomo aga katakoi wa yamu toki mo araji
- Next Poem
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Uraburete mono wa omowaji minasegawa aritemo mizu wa yuku to iu mono o