思ひ出でておとづれしける山彦の
答へに懲りぬ心なになり
答へに懲りぬ心なになり
- Roma-ji
-
Omoiidete otozure shikeru yamabiko no kotae ni korinu kokoro nani nari
- English Translation
-
Remembering me,
you sent a word at last—
like a mountain echo,
and this heart that never learns
from such answers, what is it
- Meaning
- You remembered me and sent word at last, like an echo from the mountains. What is this heart of mine that never learns from such answers?
- Commentary
-
Book Twelve Love Poems IV 876
Headnote: "When Asatada Ason, after a long silence, sent a letter."
The poet asks what this heart is that does not learn its lesson from the answer of an echo that remembered and sent word. Likening a man who has been silent for long and suddenly writes to a mountain echo's reply, she wonders at herself for being drawn to him all the same.
According to the headnote, the poem was composed when Fujiwara no Asatada, after sending no word for a long time, sent a letter. 797 in this book also sings of a mountain echo, there a love that calls aloud without answer, so the two form a reversed pairing of call and reply.
The poet is listed as anonymous, and the composer's name has not come down to us.
The first line, "Omoiidete," means "remembering me."
The second line, "otozure shikeru," means "who sent word," with "oto" also suggesting sound and leading on to "yamabiko" in the third line.
The third line, "yamabiko no," means "like an echo," a figure for his letter, like an answer that comes back only now and then to her call. It is the same word as "yamabiko no," the first line of 797 in this book.
The fourth line, "kotae ni korinu," means "not learning from its answer."
The last line, "kokoro nani nari," means "what is this heart," puzzling over her own feelings.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
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