絵にかける鳥とも人を見てしがな
同じ所を常にとふべく
同じ所を常にとふべく
- Roma-ji
-
E ni kakeru tori tomo hito o miteshi gana onaji tokoro o tsune ni tou beku
- English Translation
-
I wish I could see you
as a bird painted in a picture,
so that you would come
always to the same spot,
flying there forever
- Meaning
- I wish I could think of you as the bird painted on the screen, so that, as it stays forever in one place, you too would always come to visit me here.
- Commentary
-
Book Eleven Love Poems III 709
Headnote: "When a man who visited only now and then drew a bird on the sliding screen of her room, she pasted this beside it."
The poet says she wishes she could see him as the painted bird, so that he would always visit the same place. Drawing on the way a painted bird never leaves its spot, she wishes that a man who comes only occasionally would come to her always.
According to the headnote, a man who visited her only from time to time drew a bird on the screen of her room, and she pasted this poem next to it.
The poet, Hon'in no Jijū, was a lady-in-waiting known by that name, and her poems are collected in the Hon'in no Jijū Shū. She is known for her love exchanges with Fujiwara no Kanemichi and others.
The first line, "E ni kakeru," means "painted in a picture."
The second line, "tori tomo hito o," means "you, as if a bird."
The third line, "miteshi gana," means "I wish I could see," with "teshi gana" expressing a wish. The poem pauses here.
The fourth line, "onaji tokoro o," means "the same place," referring to how the painted bird always remains in one spot.
The last line, "tsune ni tou beku," means "so as always to visit," where "tou" is a pivot word meaning both a person's "visiting" and a bird's "flying." It stands in inverted order with the third line.
- Author
- Hon'in no Jijū
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
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Shinu shinu to kiku kiku dani mo aimineba inochi o itsu no yo ni ka nokosan
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Mukashi seshi waga kanegoto no kanashiki wa ika ni chigirishi nagori naruran