梓弓引きて緩へぬ大夫や
恋といふものを忍びかねてむ
恋といふものを忍びかねてむ
- Roma-ji
-
Azusayumi hikite yuruenu masurao ya koi to iu mono o shinobikanetemu
- English Translation
-
A catalpa bow
drawn taut and never slackened,
can a manly man
like that be unable
to endure the thing called love
- Meaning
- Can a true man, like a catalpa bow drawn taut and never slackened, be unable to bear the thing called love?
- Commentary
-
Book Twelve Expressing Thoughts through Things 2987
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Thoughts through Things"
A man asks himself whether even a true man, his spirit as taut as a bow drawn and never slackened, cannot endure love. The taut image of the bow is set against a heart weakened by 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, "azusayumi," is a pillow word for "hiku," to draw.
Line two, "hikite yuruenu," means "drawn and never slackened," a figure for a man whose spirit never relaxes. It contrasts with "hikimi yuruemi" in the preceding poem.
Line three, "masurao ya," means "a manly man," with "ya" a question concluded by the attributive "temu" in line five.
Line four, "koi to iu mono o," means "the thing called love," a hypermetric line of eight syllables.
Line five, "shinobikanetemu," means "is he unable to endure it?", portraying a man weakened by love, as in poems 2875 and 2907 in this book.
- Author
- Unknown
- Source
- Manyoshu
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Azusayumi hikimi yuruemi omoimite sude ni kokoro wa yorinishi mono o
- Next Poem
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Azusayumi sue no nakagoro yodomerishi kimi ni wa ainu nageki wa yamemu