うちはへて音を泣き暮らす空蝉の
むなしき恋も我はするかな
むなしき恋も我はするかな
- Roma-ji
-
Uchihaete ne o nakikurasu utsusemi no munashiki koi mo ware wa suru kana
- English Translation
-
On and on it cries,
the whole day through, like the cicada,
its empty husk left—
and so a love as empty
is the love that I have known
- Meaning
- Like the cicada that cries the whole day through, leaving only an empty husk, so I too am caught in an empty love.
- Commentary
-
Book Four Summer Poems 192
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
Like the cicada crying the whole day long, the poet is caught in an empty love. Drawing "munashiki," empty, from "utsusemi," the cicada's cast-off shell, he laments a self that weeps the days away in unrequited love.
The poet is listed as "anonymous," and the composer's name has not come down to us.
It is also included in Fujiwara no Teika's anthology Teika Hachidaishō.
The first line, "Uchihaete," means "on and on," the same word as the third line of 184 in this book. The subject shifts from the cuckoo to the cicada.
The second line, "ne o nakikurasu," means "crying aloud the day away," layering the cicada's singing with a person's weeping.
The third line, "utsusemi no," names the cicada or its empty shell and leads to "munashiki," empty. The first three lines form a preface. 195 of this book also begins with "utsusemi no."
The fourth line, "munashiki koi mo," means "an empty, unrequited love."
The last line, "ware wa suru kana," means "is what I am in," with "kana" as a sigh.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
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