深く思ひそめつと言ひし言の葉は
いつかあき風吹きて散りぬる
いつかあき風吹きて散りぬる
- Roma-ji
-
Fukaku omoi sometsu to iishi koto no ha wa itsuka akikaze fukite chirinuru
- English Translation
-
Those words that I spoke,
that my love was deeply dyed
and newly begun—
when did an autumn wind
blow and scatter them away
- Meaning
- Those words I spoke, that my heart was deeply dyed with love for you—when did an autumn wind of weariness ever blow and scatter them?
- Commentary
-
Book Thirteen Love Poems V 933
Headnote: "Composed when a woman wrote to say that he had an inconstant heart."
The poet asks when an autumn wind ever blew and scattered the words he spoke, that he had begun to love her deeply. Treating words as leaves, he answers the woman who doubts him that his words of love have not been scattered by a wind of weariness.
According to the headnote, a woman wrote to say he had a fickle heart, and he answered with this. Seeing words as leaves scattered by the wind of "aki" matches the device of 897 in this book, and this poem answers such doubt from the man's side.
The poet, listed as "the Posthumous Chancellor," was Fujiwara no Tokihira. The eldest son of Fujiwara no Mototsune, he rose to Minister of the Left and was posthumously granted the office of Chancellor, hence the name. He is known for having Sugawara no Michizane exiled to Dazaifu.
The first line, "Fukaku omoi," means "loving deeply," a hypermetric line of six syllables.
The second line, "sometsu to iishi," means "that I said I had begun," with "some" joining "somu," to begin, and "somu," to dye, related to "fukaku," deeply, in the first line.
The third line, "koto no ha wa," means "those words," with "ha," leaf, related to "kaze" and "chiru" below.
The fourth line, "itsuka akikaze," means "when did the autumn wind," with "aki" joining autumn and "aki," weariness. "Ka" is a rhetorical binding particle.
The last line, "fukite chirinuru," means "blow and scatter them," closing the "ka" of the fourth line with the attributive "nuru."
- Author
- Fujiwara no Tokihira
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
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