かくばかり別れのやすき世の中に
常と頼める我ぞはかなき
常と頼める我ぞはかなき
- Roma-ji
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Kaku bakari wakare no yasuki yo no naka ni tsune to tanomeru ware zo hakanaki
- English Translation
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In a world like this,
where parting comes so easily,
I who trusted
that things would ever stay the same—
how foolish, how fleeting I am
- Meaning
- In a world where partings come so easily, how frail and foolish I am to have trusted that things would always remain the same.
- Commentary
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Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems IV 1265
Headnote: "When a woman friend was no longer visited by the man she had relied on for many years, grieving together with her."
The poet says that in a world where parting comes so easily, it is she who trusted in constancy who is frail. She grieves for a friend no longer visited by the man she relied on for years as if it were her own sorrow.
According to the headnote, a woman friend was no longer visited by the man she had trusted for many years, and the poet composed this grieving with her. Following the two preceding poems, it speaks of the world's transience.
The poet is anonymous and the name is not known.
The first line, "Kaku bakari," means "so much as this."
The second line, "wakare no yasuki," means "where parting comes so easily."
The third line, "yo no naka ni," means "in a world." It shares "yo no naka" with the first line of the preceding poem.
The fourth line, "tsune to tanomeru," means "who trusted it to last."
The last line, "ware zo hakanaki," means "it is I who am frail," with "zo" closed by the attributive "hakanaki."
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
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Yo no naka to iitsuru mono ka kagerou no aru ka naki ka no hodo ni zo arikeru
- Next Poem
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Chiri ni tatsu waga na kiyomen momoshiki no hito no kokoro o makura to mo gana