いかにせむ御垣が原に摘む芹の
ねにのみ泣けど知る人のなき
ねにのみ泣けど知る人のなき
- Roma-ji
-
Ika ni semu Mikakigahara ni tsumu seri no ne ni nomi nakedo shiru hito no naki
- English Translation
-
What am I to do?
Like the parsley that I pluck
on Mikaki Moor,
I cry out loud, root and all,
yet no one knows my sorrow
- Meaning
- What am I to do? Like the roots of the parsley I pick on Mikaki Moor, I can do nothing but cry aloud, and yet there is no one who knows my love.
- Commentary
-
Book Eleven Love Poems I 668
Headnote: "Topic unknown"
What am I to do, the poet asks; like the roots of the parsley I pick on Mikaki Moor, I only cry aloud, yet no one knows. The second and third lines are a preface leading to "ne," "root," and from the scene of picking parsley the poem turns to the like-sounding "ne," "crying aloud," voicing the grief of one who can only weep over a love that cannot be. "Picking parsley" goes back to the story of a man who glimpsed an empress eating parsley in the palace and went on picking parsley in hopeless love, and it became a phrase for a love that cannot be fulfilled. The poem is attributed to "Anonymous," but the Jishō Thirty-Six Poets Contest gives it to Taira no Tsunemori.
Like 646 of this book, it opens with "ika ni semu." Its last line, "shiru hito no naki," is the same as the last line of 689.
First line, "ika ni semu": "what am I to do?" The poem pauses here. Poems 646, 691 and 703 open with the same line.
Second line, "Mikakigahara ni": Mikakigahara is said to be either a field within the palace walls or a place in Yamato. Calling up a place tied to the palace, it hints at a love that cannot be.
Third line, "tsumu seri no": "picking parsley" draws on the story of parsley picking. Together with the second line it forms a preface leading to "ne" in the fourth line.
Fourth line, "ne ni nomi nakedo": "ne" combines the "root" of parsley and "ne," the sound of crying aloud. "Do" is adversative, "though I do nothing but cry aloud."
Fifth line, "shiru hito no naki": "there is no one who knows this love." It ends in the attributive, leaving a lingering sigh. It is the same as the last line of 689.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Senzai Wakashu
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Hito shirenu namida no kawa no minakami ya Iwade no yama no tani no shitamizu
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Tsure mo naki hito no kokoro ya Ausaka no sekiji hedatsuru kasumi naruran