咲く花に思ひつくみのあぢきなさ
身にいたつきの入るも知らずて
身にいたつきの入るも知らずて
- Roma-ji
-
Saku hana ni omoitsuku mi no ajikinasa mi ni itatsuki no iru mo shirazute
- English Translation
-
To the blooming flowers
I have given all my heart—
how futile it is!
not knowing that a sickness
has crept into this body.
- Meaning
- How futile it is, this self of mine that has given its heart to the blooming flowers, not knowing that sickness has crept into the body!
- Commentary
-
Book Seven Names of Things 405
Headnote: "Tsugumi (thrush)"
The poet laments the futility of a self that has given its heart to the blooming flowers, not knowing that sickness has crept into the body. Within this self-admonition against attachment to flowers, the name of the thrush given in the headnote is hidden in the run of sounds "omoitsuku mi" in the second line. The headnote names the thing hidden in the poem.
Ōtomo no Kuronushi was an early Heian poet said to have come from a powerful family of Shiga District in Ōmi, and he is counted among the Six Poetic Immortals.
First line, "saku hana ni," means "to the blooming flowers."
Second line, "omoitsuku mi no," means "of this self that gives its heart," hiding the name "tsugumi" in "tsuku mi" as in the preceding poem. Taking up "hana ni tsuku mi" in the preceding poem, here it becomes "omoitsuku mi."
Third line, "ajikinasa," means "how futile," ending on a noun, and the poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "mi ni itatsuki no," means "sickness into the body," repeating "mi" from the second line.
Final line, "iru mo shirazute," means "not knowing it enters," giving by inversion the reason for the lament in the third line.
- Author
- Ōtomo no Kuronushi
- Source
- Shui Wakashu
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Waga kokoro ayashiku ada ni haru kureba hana ni tsuku mi to nadote nariken
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Naniwazu wa kurame ni nomi zo fune wa tsuku ashita no kaze no sadame nakereba