糸による物ならなくに別れ路は
心細くも思ほゆるかな
心細くも思ほゆるかな
- Roma-ji
-
Ito ni yoru mono naranaku ni wakareji wa kokorobosoku mo omōyuru kana
- English Translation
-
Though it is no thing
that one twists from threads of silk,
this road of parting
seems to me as thin and frail
as the heart that trembles now.
- Meaning
- Though it is nothing twisted from thread, the road of parting makes me feel as frail and thin as a thread.
- Commentary
-
Book Six Parting Poems 330
Headnote: "When I was going to the provinces"
The poet says that though the road of parting is nothing twisted from thread, it makes him feel as thin and frail as a thread. Running the association of thread through "yoru," to twist, and "kokorobososhi," thin-hearted, he expresses the unease of setting out from the capital for the provinces. According to the headnote, it was composed when the poet went down to the provinces.
The author, written as Tsurayuki, is Ki no Tsurayuki. The leading compiler of the Kokinshū, he wrote its Kana Preface and the Tosa Diary, and he is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.
This poem also appears among the travel poems of the Kokinshū as a poem by Ki no Tsurayuki composed on the road going down to the East.
First line, "ito ni yoru," means "twisted into thread." It echoes "namida no tama" in 328, two poems earlier, through the thread that strings jewels.
Second line, "mono naranaku ni," means "though it is no such thing," with "naku" the nominalized form of the negative auxiliary "zu."
Third line, "wakareji wa," means "the road of parting."
Fourth line, "kokorobosoku mo," means "forlorn, thin of heart," with "hososhi" (thin) an associated word for thread.
Final line, "omōyuru kana," means "how it seems to me," with "omōyu" meaning "to come to mind naturally" and "kana" exclamatory.
- Author
- Ki no Tsurayuki
- Source
- Shui Wakashu
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