年月の行くらん方もおもほえず
秋のはつかに人の見ゆれば
秋のはつかに人の見ゆれば
- Roma-ji
-
Toshitsuki no yukuran kata mo omōezu aki no hatsuka ni hito no miyureba
- English Translation
-
Where the months and years
might be going, I know not,
nor think of at all,
for only faintly in the autumn
do I see the one I love.
- Meaning
- I no longer know where the months and years are going, for I see that person only fleetingly, in autumn.
- Commentary
-
Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 906
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
The poem says that because I see that person only fleetingly in autumn, I no longer know where the months and years are going. It sings of a heart that, waiting for someone it can rarely meet, loses even its sense of the passing of time.
From 906 to 908 in this book, three poems by Ise follow in a row, all singing of a heart that thinks from afar of someone it cannot meet.
The author, "Ise," was a woman poet of the early to mid-Heian period and the daughter of Fujiwara no Tsugukage. She served Onshi, empress of Emperor Uda, and later received the emperor's favor. She is one of the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.
First line, "toshitsuki no," means "of the months and years." It shares the years with the third line of the next poem, 907, "toshitsuki o."
Second line, "yukuran kata mo," means "even the direction in which they go," with "ran" an auxiliary of present conjecture.
Third line, "omōezu," means "I do not know, it does not occur to me." The poem breaks here.
Fourth line, "aki no hatsuka ni," means "just faintly, in autumn," with "hatsuka" meaning slightly or faintly.
Final line, "hito no miyureba," means "since I see that person," with "ba" a fixed condition. Inverted with the upper verse, it gives the reason the sense of time is lost.
- Author
- Ise
- Source
- Shui Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Michinoku no Adachi no hara no shiramayumi kokoro kowaku mo miyuru kimi kana
- Next Poem
-
Omoiki ya aiminu hodo no toshitsuki o kazou bakari ni naran mono to wa