蓮葉の上はつれなきうらにこそ
物あらがひはつくといふなれ
物あらがひはつくといふなれ
- Roma-ji
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Hachisuba no ue wa tsurenaki ura ni koso mono aragai wa tsuku to iu nare
- English Translation
-
On the lotus leaf
the top shows a careless face,
but on the underside,
as shells cling within a bay,
protest clings, or so they say
- Meaning
- The lotus leaf shows an unconcerned face on top, but it is on the underside, they say, that protest clings—just as shells cling in a bay.
- Commentary
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Book Thirteen Love Poems V 903
Headnote: "Sent when people were saying she had already met a man with whom she had only exchanged letters, and he wrote reproaching her that she did not seem to deny it."
The poet says that though a lotus leaf looks unconcerned on top, protest clings to its underside. She tells him her true feeling through the two faces of the leaf: outwardly calm, yet inwardly she strongly denies the rumor.
According to the headnote, she had exchanged letters with a man but had not yet met him, and when people began saying they had met, he wrote reproaching her for not denying it. She answers with wit, overlaying "ura" and "aragai" with a bay and its shells.
The poet is listed as anonymous, and the composer's name has not come down to us.
The first line, "Hachisuba no," means "of the lotus leaf," something with a top and an underside.
The second line, "ue wa tsurenaki," means "unconcerned on its surface," a figure for her calm appearance on hearing the rumor.
The third line, "ura ni koso," means "it is on the underside," with "ura" joining the underside of the leaf and a bay by the sea. "Koso" is an emphatic binding particle.
The fourth line, "mono aragai wa," means "protest," with "aragai" joining dispute and "kai," shells, related to the bay.
The last line, "tsuku to iu nare," means "clings, so they say," with "nare" the realis form of the hearsay auxiliary "nari," closing the "koso" of the third line.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
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Shizuhata ni omoi midarete aki no yo no akuru mo shirazu nagekitsuru kana
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Furiyameba ato dani mienu utakata no kiete hakanaki yo o tanomu kana