佐保川に凍りわたれる薄ら氷の
薄き心を我が思はなくに
薄き心を我が思はなくに
- Roma-ji
-
Sahogawa ni kōriwatareru usurai no usuki kokoro o waga omowanaku ni
- English Translation
-
On Saho River
frozen over end to end
the thin sheet of ice;
thin as that, my heart is not,
not the way I think of you
- Meaning
- The thin ice spread across the Saho River, yet my heart is not thin like that in the way I love you.
- Commentary
-
Book Twenty Miscellaneous Poems 4478
Headnote: "A poem composed by Ōhara no Sakurai as he walked along the Saho River."
My heart is not thin like the ice spread over the Saho River in the way I love you: a love poem pleading the depth of feeling. According to the headnote, Ōhara no Sakurai composed it while walking by the Saho River. The left note says it is one of four poems recited by Ōhara no Imaki. Drawing on the thin ice of the winter river, it declares a love that is its very opposite.
The author, Ōhara no Sakurai, formerly Prince Sakurai, later received the surname Ōhara no Mahito.
The first line, "Sahogawa ni," names the river flowing through Saho in Nara, the same place as the "Saho road" of the preceding poem.
The second line, "kōriwatareru," means "frozen over across its width."
The third line, "usurai no," "the thin ice," with the first three lines forming a preface leading by sound to usuki, "thin."
The fourth line, "usuki kokoro o," "a thin heart," turns from the preface to love.
The closing line, "waga omowanaku ni," uses naku ni, negation with a sigh: that is not how I love you.
- Author
- Ōhara no Sakurai
- Source
- Manyoshu
- Prev Poem
-
Yūgiri ni chidori no nakishi Sahoji o ba arashi ya shitemu miru yoshi o nami
- Next Poem
-
Asayoi ni ne nomi shi nakeba yakitachi no togokoro mo are wa omoikanetsu mo