いかにして恋やむものぞ天地の
神を祈れど我れは思ひ増す
神を祈れど我れは思ひ増す
- Roma-ji
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Ika ni shite koi yamu mono zo ametsuchi no kami o inoredo ware wa omoi masu
- English Translation
-
How, I wonder, how
does love ever come to cease?
To heaven and earth
I pray, yet for all my prayers
my longing only grows
- Meaning
- How does love ever come to an end? Though I pray to the gods of heaven and earth, my longing only grows.
- Commentary
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Book Thirteen Dialogue Poems 3306
Headnote: "Envoy"
This is the envoy to the dialogue chōka (3305). It asks how love can ever stop and laments that even praying to the gods of heaven and earth only makes it grow. In the chōka the man says that people link his name with a maiden lovely as azaleas and flourishing as cherry blossoms, and since even a rugged mountain will yield if people push it, he warns her heart to be on guard. The envoy states how the man’s own love has mounted and leads to the maiden’s reply (3307, 3308). It shares with 3287 of this book the theme of prayer to the gods of heaven and earth.
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, “ika ni shite,” means “by what means,” asking how love might be stopped.
In the second line, “mono zo” asks “is it a thing that…,” and the poem breaks here.
The third line, “ametsuchi no,” means the gods of heaven and earth, modifying “kami” in the fourth line.
The fourth line, “kami o inoredo,” means “though I pray to the gods,” the concessive “do” showing the prayer goes unanswered.
The closing line, “ware wa omoi masu,” means “my longing grows ever more,” the hypermetric line itself suggesting overflowing feeling. The next poem, 3308, answers with the same words “the gods of heaven and earth.”
- Source
- Manyoshu
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Ametsuchi no kami o mo ware wa inoriteki koi to iu mono wa katsute yamazukeri