物も言はで眺めてぞ経る山吹の
花に心ぞうつろひぬらん
花に心ぞうつろひぬらん
- Roma-ji
-
Mono mo iwade nagamete zo furu yamabuki no hana ni kokoro zo utsuroinuran
- English Translation
-
Without a word said,
I pass the days lost in gazing;
to the kerria's
flowers, I wonder, has my heart
been drawn away and changed?
- Meaning
- Saying nothing, I pass the days lost in gazing; has my heart, I wonder, been drawn away to the kerria blossoms?
- Commentary
-
Book One Spring Poems 70
Headnote: "For a folding screen"
The poet spends the days gazing in silent reverie, and wonders whether it is because the heart has been drawn away to the kerria flowers. Because kerria yellow is called gardenia color, "kuchinashi," which also means "mouthless," the poem connects saying nothing with the kerria. According to the headnote, it accompanied a folding screen.
The author, written as Motosuke, is Kiyohara no Motosuke. The grandson of Kiyohara no Fukayabu and the father of Sei Shōnagon, he took part in compiling the Gosenshū as one of the Five Men of the Pear Chamber and is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.
First line, "mono mo iwade," means "without saying a word," with "de" as a negative conjunctive particle. It evokes "kuchinashi," mouthless, since kerria's color is called gardenia yellow.
Second line, "nagamete zo furu," with "nagamu" meaning to gaze absently, lost in thought, closes in the attributive "furu" in response to "zo," and the poem pauses after the second line.
Third line, "yamabuki no," continues the kerria poems after 68 and 69 of this book.
Fourth line, "hana ni kokoro zo," sets the particle "zo," which is resolved by "ran" in the final line.
Final line, "utsuroinuran," means "has my heart been drawn away?" and resonates with "utsurou" in the sense of a flower's color fading.
- Author
- Kiyohara no Motosuke
- Source
- Shui Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Yamabuki no hana no sakari ni ide ni kite kono satobito ni narinubeki kana
- Next Poem
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Sawamizu ni kawazu naku nari yamabuki no utsurou kage ya soko ni miyuran