いづ方に立ち隠れつつ見よとてか
思ひくまなく人のなりゆく
思ひくまなく人のなりゆく
- Roma-ji
-
Izukata ni tachikakuretsutsu miyo tote ka omoi kuma naku hito no nariyuku
- English Translation
-
Where am I to hide,
standing out of sight
to watch, I wonder?
With no shade of care at all,
she grows so changed toward me
- Meaning
- Where am I supposed to hide and watch from? She grows ever more changed, leaving no shadow to hide in and no shade of kindness toward me.
- Commentary
-
Book Eleven Love Poems III 748
Headnote: "Sent when a woman he had been close to seemed to have changed toward him against his wishes."
The poet asks where he is meant to hide and watch, as she becomes changed without a thought for him. He laments with irony how she grows openly colder, leaving not even a shadow to hide in.
According to the headnote, the poem was sent when a woman he had been intimate with seemed to have grown cold toward him.
The poet, listed as "Fujiwara no Chikage no Ason," was a man named Fujiwara no Chikage, and little is known of his career.
The first line, "Izukata ni," means "where, in which direction."
The second line, "tachikakuretsutsu," means "hiding myself."
The third line, "miyo tote ka," means "are you telling me to watch," with "ka" an interrogative particle.
In the fourth line, "omoi kuma naku," "kuma" is a pivot word joining "omoiguma," consideration, with "kuma," a shadowy nook, and so connects with "tachikakure," hiding, in the second line.
The last line, "hito no nariyuku," means "she is becoming," closing with the attributive "nariyuku" in answer to "ka" in the third line, a kakarimusubi pattern.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Chikage
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
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