小竹の上に来居て鳴く鳥目を安み
人妻ゆゑに我れ恋ひにけり
人妻ゆゑに我れ恋ひにけり
- Roma-ji
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Shino no ue ni kiite naku tori me o yasumi hitozuma yue ni are koinikeri
- English Translation
-
Like the bird that comes
to perch and sing upon the bamboo,
so easy on the eye,
though she's another's wife
I have fallen in love
- Meaning
- Like a bird that comes to sing on the bamboo grass, she was so easy to see and grow fond of that I fell in love, though she is another man's wife.
- Commentary
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Book Twelve Expressing Thoughts through Things 3093
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Thoughts through Things"
Like a bird perching and singing on the bamboo grass, she was so familiar to the eye that the poet fell in love though knowing she was married. A forbidden love for another's wife is described through the image of a familiar bird.
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, "shino no ue ni," means "on the bamboo grass," read "shino no ue ni" in the kana line.
Line two, "kiite naku tori," means "the bird that comes to perch and sing," and the lines up to here form an introduction leading, through a bird easy to see nearby, to "me o yasumi."
Line three, "me o yasumi," is taken to mean "since she was easy on the eye, familiar."
Line four, "hitozuma yue ni," means "though she is another's wife." Poem 2909 in this book also sings of love for a married woman.
Line five, "are koinikeri," means "I have fallen in love."
- Author
- Unknown
- Source
- Manyoshu
- Prev Poem
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Shiramayumi Hida no hosoe no sugadori no imo ni koure ka i o nekanetsuru
- Next Poem
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Monomou to inezu okitaru asake ni wa wabite naku nari niwatsutori sae