隠れ沼の底の心ぞ恨めしき
いかにせよとてつれなかるらん
いかにせよとてつれなかるらん
- Roma-ji
-
Kakurenu no soko no kokoro zo urameshiki ika ni seyo tote tsurenakaruran
- English Translation
-
Like a hidden marsh,
the depths of your heart unseen
are what I resent;
what would you have me do,
that you should be so cold?
- Meaning
- Like the depths of a hidden marsh, the unseen bottom of your heart is what I resent; what would you have me do, that you are so cold to me?
- Commentary
-
Book Twelve Love Poems II 758
Headnote: "When he was a chamberlain and spoke secretly to the nurse of the late Emperor Murakami, and she, saying it was unseemly, would not meet him at all"
The poem resents the depths of the beloved's heart, unseen like the bottom of a marsh hidden by grass, and asks what she would have him do that she is so cold. The headnote shows that when the poet was a chamberlain he secretly approached the nurse of Emperor Murakami, and she would not meet him at all, saying it was unseemly. Likening her hidden true feelings to the bottom of the marsh, it voices reproach at her coldness.
The author, written as "Ichijō Sesshō," is Fujiwara no Koretada. The eldest son of Fujiwara no Morosuke, Minister of the Right, he rose to Regent and Chancellor. He served as director of the Bureau of Poetry when the Gosenshū was compiled and received the posthumous name Kentokukō. He is known for his poem "aware to mo iu beki hito wa omōede" in the Hyakunin Isshu.
First line, "kakurenu no," means "of a hidden marsh," a marsh concealed by grass, leading into "soko," depths, in the second line.
Second line, "soko no kokoro zo," means "the depths of your heart," with the binding particle "zo" resolved by the attributive "urameshiki" in the third line.
Third line, "urameshiki," means "I resent," and the poem breaks after this third line.
Fourth line, "ika ni seyo tote," means "what would you have me do."
Final line, "tsurenakaruran," means "that you are so cold," with "ran" an auxiliary conjecturing a cause.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Koretada
- Source
- Shui Wakashu
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