恋ひ死なむ後は何せん生ける日の
ためこそ人の見まくほしけれ
ためこそ人の見まくほしけれ
- Roma-ji
-
Koishinamu nochi wa nani sen ikeru hi no tame koso hito no mimaku hoshikere
- English Translation
-
After I have died,
dying of love, what use then?
it is for the days
while I am alive that I
long to see the one I love.
- Meaning
- What use would it be after I had died of love? It is for the days I am alive that I long to see her.
- Commentary
-
Book Eleven Love Poems I 685
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
The poem says that a meeting after one has died of love would be of no use, and that it is for the days of living that the poet longs to see the beloved. Where the preceding poems sought to exchange life for a meeting, it states plainly that after death it would be meaningless, and that he wishes to meet while still alive. It appears in Book Four of the Man'yōshū as a poem by Ōtomo no Momoyo, with slight differences in the fourth and final lines.
The author, written as "Ōtomo no Momoyo" with a variant character, is Ōtomo no Momoyo. An official of the Nara period, he served as a senior secretary of Dazaifu and took part in the plum-blossom banquet held under Ōtomo no Tabito.
First line, "koishinamu," means "should I die of love," with "na" the irrealis form of the perfective "nu" and "mu" the attributive form of the conjectural auxiliary.
Second line, "nochi wa nani sen," means "what use would it be after," a rhetorical question. The poem breaks after this second line.
Third line, "ikeru hi no," means "of the days I am alive."
Fourth line, "tame koso hito no," means "it is for them that her," with the binding particle "koso" resolved by the perfective form "hoshikere" in the final line.
Final line, "mimaku hoshikere," means "I long to see," with "mimaku" formed from "mimu" with the suffix "ku."
- Author
- Ōtomo no Momoyo
- Source
- Shui Wakashu
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Ikitareba koi suru koto no kurushiki o nao inochi o ba au ni kaeten
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Aware to shi kimi dani iwaba koiwabite shinan inochi mo oshikaranaku ni