いにしへの神の時より逢ひけらし
今の心も常忘らえず
今の心も常忘らえず
- Roma-ji
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Inishie no kami no toki yori aikerashi ima no kokoro mo tsune wasuraezu
- English Translation
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From the days of old,
the very age of the gods,
we must have met—
so my heart as well, even now,
can never once forget
- Meaning
- We must have been meeting since the ancient age of the gods—that is why my heart even now can never forget you.
- Commentary
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Book Thirteen Love Poems 3290
Headnote: "Envoy"
This is the envoy to the chōka (3289). That her present love is so impossible to forget must mean they were destined to meet from the distant age of the gods. The chōka is a woman’s song: she met him as she was meant to, at a time when she had nowhere to turn, like water pooled on a lotus leaf in Tsurugi Pond, and though her mother tells her not to sleep with him, she will keep him hidden deep in her heart like the bottom of Kiyosumi Pond and never forget. The envoy traces their bond back to the age of the gods, affirming love as a fated union.
The poet is unknown. Book Thirteen is built mainly of anonymous chōka and their envoys, and many of its poems preserve the air of old songs and ritual verse.
The first line, “inishie no,” means “of ancient times,” leading to the age of the gods.
The second line, “kami no toki yori,” means “since the age of the gods,” carrying their bond back beyond the human world.
In the third line, “kerashi” joins the past “keri” to the conjectural “rashi”: “we must have met,” inferred with grounds. The poem breaks here.
The fourth line, “ima no kokoro mo,” means “my heart now, too,” setting the present against the divine past.
The closing line, “tsune wasuraezu,” means “can never forget,” taking up the chōka’s “I will not forget.”
- Source
- Manyoshu
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