人知れずわがしめし野の常夏は
花咲きぬべき時ぞ来にける
花咲きぬべき時ぞ来にける
- Roma-ji
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Hito shirezu waga shimeshi no no tokonatsu wa hana sakinu beki toki zo kinikeru
- English Translation
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Unknown to others,
in the moor I marked as mine,
the everlasting pink—
for it to come into flower,
now at last the time has come
- Meaning
- Unknown to anyone, I marked this moor as mine, and now the time has come for its everlasting pink to bloom.
- Commentary
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Book Four Summer Poems 198
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
The poet says that the time has come for the tokonatsu, the pink, on the moor he secretly marked as his own, to bloom. Likening to the pink a girl he has quietly loved, he rejoices that she has come of age.
The poet is listed as "anonymous," and the composer's name has not come down to us. The text gives the author as "yomibito mo," but it is treated here as anonymous.
The first line, "Hito shirezu," means "unknown to others," showing that his feelings were secret.
The second line, "waga shimeshi no no," means "of the moor I marked as mine," the same conceit as "waga shime yuishi" in 183 of this book.
The third line, "tokonatsu wa," names tokonatsu, another name for the pink, likening it to the girl he loves. 200 and 201 of this book also sing of "tokonatsu," continuing a run of poems on pinks.
In the fourth line, "nu" is emphatic and "beki" is the attributive form of the conjectural auxiliary "beshi": "when it is sure to bloom."
The last line, "toki zo kinikeru," means "the time has come," with the particle "zo" forming a kakarimusubi pattern with the attributive "keru." Where 183 asked that no one be allowed to pluck the flower in its prime, this poem sings of the joy of having waited until it blooms.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
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