鶯の雲居にわびて鳴く声を
春のさがとぞ我は聞きつる
春のさがとぞ我は聞きつる
- Roma-ji
-
Uguisu no kumoi ni wabite naku koe o haru no saga to zo ware wa kikitsuru
- English Translation
-
The warbler's voice,
crying in grief far off
in the clouded sky—
I took it as the way of spring,
and so I heard it
- Meaning
- The warbler's voice, crying in sorrow far off in the sky—I heard it only as spring's own nature.
- Commentary
-
Book Ten Love Poems II 614
Headnote: "He had not visited for a long time a woman he had come to know, and someone told him that she was grieving terribly."
The poet says he heard the warbler crying in sorrow far off in the sky as nothing more than the nature of spring. Likening the neglected woman's grief to the warbler's call, he excuses himself by saying he took it as the spring bird's nature and did not realize how serious it was.
According to the headnote, he had long failed to visit a woman he knew well, and someone told him she was grieving terribly. Book Nine's 533 also closes with "saga to koso mire," taking the same approach of treating another's grief as an inborn nature.
The poet, Fujiwara no Akitada, was the second son of the Minister of the Left Fujiwara no Tokihira and rose to Minister of the Right.
The first line, "Uguisu no," means "the warbler," a figure for the grieving woman.
The second line, "kumoi ni wabite," means "grieving far off in the sky," layered with the woman's situation, far removed from the poet.
The third line, "naku koe o," means "its crying voice," referring to the woman's laments.
The fourth line, "haru no saga to zo," means "as the nature of spring," with "zo" an emphatic particle.
The last line, "ware wa kikitsuru," means "so I heard it," closing with the attributive "tsuru" in answer to "zo" in the fourth line, a kakarimusubi pattern.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Akitada
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
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