我が恋は夜昼わかず百重なす
心し思へばいたもすべなし
心し思へばいたもすべなし
- Roma-ji
-
Aga koi wa yoru hiru wakazu momoe nasu kokoro shi omoeba ita mo subenashi
- English Translation
-
This love of mine
knows no night and knows no day;
in a heart that folds
a hundredfold I think of you,
and nothing can be done
- Meaning
- My love knows no difference between night and day; thinking of you with a heart folded a hundred times over, I am utterly helpless.
- Commentary
-
Book Twelve Expressing Thoughts Directly 2902
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Thoughts Directly"
The poet laments being utterly helpless, the heart filled night and day with feelings folded a hundred times over. Stacking exaggerations of time and quantity, day and night and a hundredfold, the poem expresses the boundlessness of love.
The poet is unknown. Book Twelve, titled the second part of "Love Poems Exchanged Old and New," gathers love poems by people whose names have not come down to us, arranged by category.
Line one, "aga koi wa," means "my love."
Line two, "yoru hiru wakazu," means "without distinguishing night and day," describing unending love. The poem pauses here.
Line three, "momoe nasu," means "folded a hundredfold," modifying "kokoro," heart. Poem 2910 in this book likewise uses "chie ni momoe ni" for layer upon layer of feeling.
Line four, "kokoro shi omoeba": "shi" is emphatic, "since I think with such a heart."
Line five, "ita mo subenashi," means "utterly helpless," with "ita" meaning "extremely."
- Author
- Unknown
- Source
- Manyoshu
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