君見ればむすぶの神ぞ恨めしき
つれなき人を何作りけん
つれなき人を何作りけん
- Roma-ji
-
Kimi mireba musubu no kami zo urameshiki tsurenaki hito o nani tsukuriken
- English Translation
-
When I look at you,
how I resent the god
who ties all things together:
one so cold to me as you,
why did he ever make you?
- Meaning
- When I look at you, I resent the god who binds all things together: why did he make someone so cold?
- Commentary
-
Book Nineteen Miscellaneous Love Poems 1265
Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poet says that on seeing the beloved, the god who ties all bonds becomes hateful, for why did he make someone so cold? Turning his resentment on the god said to give birth to all things and to bind lovers together, he pleads the pain of a hopeless love, asking why the god created someone so attractive yet so cold. It leads into the poems that follow, which turn the feelings of love toward the gods.
First line, "kimi mireba," means "when I look at you," with "ba" after the perfective form expressing a condition.
Second line, "musubu no kami zo," means "the god who brings forth all things and binds lovers," with the binding particle "zo" resolved by the attributive "urameshiki" in the third line.
Third line, "urameshiki," means "is hateful to me," and the poem breaks after this third line. It shares the turning of love's resentment toward a god with the second and third lines of 1267 in this book, "Inari no kami mo tsuraki kana."
Fourth line, "tsurenaki hito o," means "one so cold."
Final line, "nani tsukuriken," means "why did he make," with "ken" an auxiliary conjecturing a past cause.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Shui Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Mikari suru koma no tsumazuku aotsuzura kimi koso ware wa hodashi narikere
- Next Poem
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Izure o ka shirushi to omowamu Miwa no yama ari to shi aru wa sugi ni zo arikeru