唐衣かけて頼まぬ時ぞなき
人のつまとは思ふものから
人のつまとは思ふものから
- Roma-ji
-
Karakoromo kakete tanomanu toki zo naki hito no tsuma to wa omou monokara
- English Translation
-
Like a Chinese robe
hung up, there's never a time
I don't hang my hopes on you,
though I know you are
the husband of another
- Meaning
- As a Chinese robe is hung upon its rack, there is never a moment when I do not hang my hopes on you, though I know you are another woman's husband.
- Commentary
-
Book Eleven Love Poems III 746
Headnote: "Sent when she became close to a man who was another woman's husband."
The poet says there is never a time she does not set her hopes on him, though she knows he is another's husband. She voices the heart of a woman who cannot help loving a man she knows to be married.
According to the headnote, the poem was sent after she became intimate with a man who was another woman's husband.
The poet, Ukon, was a daughter of Fujiwara no Suenawa, Minor Captain of the Right Inner Palace Guards, and served Onshi, consort of Emperor Daigo. Her "wasuraruru mi oba omowazu chikaiteshi" is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
The first line, "Karakoromo," is a fine Chinese-style robe, used as a pillow word leading to "kakete," hanging, in the second line. "Karakoromo" is also set in the first and third lines of 713 and 729 in this book.
In the second line, "kakete tanomanu," "kake" is a pivot word meaning both to "hang" a robe and to "set" one's heart on someone.
The third line, "toki zo naki," means "there is no time," with "zo" an emphatic particle closing on the attributive "naki," a kakarimusubi pattern. The poem pauses here.
The fourth line, "hito no tsuma to wa," means "that you are another's spouse," "tsuma" meaning a spouse, here a husband.
The last line, "omou monokara," means "though I think so," with "monokara" an adversative particle. It stands in inverted order with the third line.
- Author
- Ukon
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Wata no soko kazukite shiramu kimi ga tame omou kokoro no fukasa kurabe ni
- Next Poem
-
Arakarishi nami no kokoro wa tsurakeredo sukoshi ni yoseshi koe zo koishiki