かくのみにありける君を衣にあらば
下にも着むと我が思へりける
下にも着むと我が思へりける
- Roma-ji
-
Kaku nomi ni arikeru kimi o kinu ni araba shita ni mo kimu to waga omoerikeru
- English Translation
-
You turned out to be
no more than this, and yet,
"if he were a robe,
I would wear him underneath,"
that is what I used to think
- Meaning
- And you turned out to be only this; yet I used to think, "If he were a robe, I would wear him close beneath my clothes."
- Commentary
-
Book Twelve Expressing Thoughts through Things 2964
Headnote: "Expressing Thoughts through Things"
A woman, having learned how cold her lover is, regrets that she once wished to keep him close like a robe against her skin. The headnote, "Expressing Thoughts through Things," marks a category of poems voicing love through concrete objects such as robes and cords, and from here the poems of this category by unnamed poets continue.
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, "kaku nomi ni," means "only so much," indicating the lover's coldness.
Line two, "arikeru kimi o," means "you who turned out so," with "keri" expressing a realization made only now.
Line three, "kinu ni araba," means "if you were a robe," read "kinu" in the kana line.
Line four, "shita ni mo kimu to," means "that I would wear you underneath." In poem 2852 in this book a man likens his beloved to a robe, "shita ni kimashi o," and here the same idea is used from the woman's side.
Line five, "waga omoerikeru," means "is what I used to think," regretting her former feelings now that she knows his coldness.
- Author
- Unknown
- Source
- Manyoshu
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