人知れず物思ふころの袖見れば
雨も涙もわかれざりけり
雨も涙もわかれざりけり
- Roma-ji
-
Hito shirezu mono omou koro no sode mireba ame mo namida mo wakarezarikeri
- English Translation
-
When I look upon
my sleeves in these days of love
that no one knows of,
neither rain nor tears, I find,
can be told apart from each other
- Meaning
- When I look at my sleeves in these days of secret longing that no one knows of, I can no longer tell the rain from my tears.
- Commentary
-
Book Eleven Love Poems I 658
Headnote: "Sent on a rainy day to the one he was secretly seeing"
Sent on a rainy day to the one he was seeing in secret. When I look at my sleeves in these days of secret longing, he says, I cannot tell the rain from my tears. Turning the rainy scene straight into a lament of love, he pleads that he weeps so much he cannot tell whether rain or tears soak his sleeves, conveying the depth of his longing when they cannot meet.
The author, "the Horikawa Minister of the Right," is Fujiwara no Yorimune. A son of Regent and Grand Minister Fujiwara no Michinaga, he rose to Minister of the Right and was called the Horikawa Minister of the Right. He was known as a poet, and his personal collection is the Nyūdō Udaijin Shū.
Poem 686 of this book likens the tears of love's brooding to raindrops from the eaves, and 692 says that a winter shower pours on the sleeves, sharing the conceit of overlaying rain and tears.
First line, "hito shirezu": "unknown to others." Poems 678, 684 and 687 of this book also use the same phrase.
Second line, "mono omou koro no": "mono omou" means to brood in love, "in these days of brooding."
Third line, "sode mireba": "when I look at my sleeves," the perfective with "ba" giving a fixed condition.
Fourth line, "ame mo namida mo": rain and tears, both of which wet the sleeves, are named side by side.
Fifth line, "wakarezarikeri": "wakare" is the irrealis of "wakaru," "to be told apart," "zari" negative, and "keri" expresses realization, "they cannot be told apart."
- Author
- Fujiwara no Yorimune
- Source
- Senzai Wakashu
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