なき事をいはれの池の浮きぬなは
くるしきものは世にこそありけれ
くるしきものは世にこそありけれ
- Roma-ji
-
Naki koto o Iware no ike no ukinunawa kurushiki mono wa yo ni koso arikere
- English Translation
-
Spoken of, falsely,
like Iware's pond water shield
floating on the pool,
reeled in with bitter labor:
such is the pain of this world.
- Meaning
- To be spoken of for things that never happened is like reeling in the water shield floating on Iware Pond; truly, it is in this world that such pain is found.
- Commentary
-
Book Twelve Love Poems II 701
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
The poem says that being spoken of for things that never happened is like reeling in the water shield floating on Iware Pond, and that such pain is truly found in this world. Pivoting "iware" on "being spoken of" and Iware Pond in Yamato, and "kuru" on "reeling in" the water shield and "kurushi," painful, it entrusts the anguish of a heart troubled by rumor to the toil of pulling in pond weed. It belongs to the sequence on groundless rumor, and "naki koto," things that never happened, in the first line echoes "nakina" in the three preceding poems.
First line, "naki koto o," means "things that never happened," a phrase akin to "nakina" in the three preceding poems.
Second line, "Iware no ike no," is a pivot word: "iware" means "being spoken of" and Iware Pond in Yamato.
Third line, "ukinunawa," is the water shield floating on the pond, "nunawa" being an old name for junsai. It leads into "kuru," to reel in.
Fourth line, "kurushiki mono wa," is a pivot word: "kuru" means "reeling in" the water shield and the "kuru" of "kurushi," painful.
Final line, "yo ni koso arikere," means "is truly found in this world," with the binding particle "koso" resolved by the perfective form "kere."
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Shui Wakashu
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