常かくし恋ふれば苦ししましくも
心休めむ事計りせよ
心休めむ事計りせよ
- Roma-ji
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Tsune kaku shi koureba kurushi shimashiku mo kokoro yasumemu kotohakari seyo
- English Translation
-
Always like this,
to be in love is pain;
for just a little while,
so that my heart may rest,
find some way for us
- Meaning
- To be always in love like this is painful; find some way to let my heart rest, even for a little while.
- Commentary
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Book Twelve Expressing Thoughts Directly 2908
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Thoughts Directly"
Suffering constantly from love, the poet asks the beloved to find some way to let the heart rest, even briefly. It carries the wish that the beloved arrange a chance for them to meet.
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, "tsune kaku shi," means "always like this," with "shi" emphatic.
Line two, "koureba kurushi," means "loving is painful," and the poem pauses here.
Line three, "shimashiku mo," means "even for a short while."
Line four, "kokoro yasumemu," means "so that my heart may rest."
Line five, "kotohakari seyo," is an imperative asking the beloved to devise a way. The word "kotohakari" also appears in poems 2898 and 2949 in this book.
- Author
- Unknown
- Source
- Manyoshu
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