ありさりて後も逢はむと思へこそ
露の命も継ぎつつ渡れ
露の命も継ぎつつ渡れ
- Roma-ji
-
Arisarite nochi mo awamu to omoe koso tsuyu no inochi mo tsugitsutsu watare
- English Translation
-
Living on like this,
thinking that we'll meet again
someday hereafter—
only so do I keep on
this life as frail as the dew
- Meaning
- Only because I think that by living on like this we may meet again someday do I keep this dewdrop life going from day to day.
- Commentary
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Book Seventeen 3933
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Twelve poems sent by Lady Heguri to Ōtomo no Sukune Yakamochi, Governor of Etchū"
Only the hope of meeting again someday sustains her fragile, dewlike life from day to day—a poem of living on the hope of reunion. This is one of twelve poems that Lady Heguri entrusted to messengers from time to time and sent to Yakamochi, who had left the capital as Governor of Etchū. Amid the pain of days without meeting, it says that this hope alone keeps her alive.
The poet, Lady Heguri, was a woman of the Heguri clan whose life is otherwise unknown. She was one of the women who exchanged love poems with Yakamochi.
The left note reads, "The above twelve poems were sent from time to time by passing messengers; they were not sent all at once."
First line, "arisarite": "passing the days just as I am."
Second line, "nochi mo awamu to": "that we will meet later," mu expressing intention.
Third line, "omoe koso": the realis with koso, "precisely because I think so"; koso is bound to the realis watare in the last line.
Fourth line, "tsuyu no inochi mo": a life as fleeting as dew, a figure of frailty.
Fifth line, "tsugitsutsu watare": "I go on, keeping it alive." The next poem, 3934, turns to speak of death—"better simply to die"—so the will to live on and the thought of death are set side by side.
- Author
- Lady Heguri
- Source
- Manyoshu
- Prev Poem
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Sumahito no umibe tsune sarazu yaku shio no karaki koi o mo are wa suru kamo
- Next Poem
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Nakanaka ni shinaba yasukemu kimi ga me o mizu hisa naraba sube nakarubeshi