誰ゆゑかあくがれにけん雲間より
見し月影はひとりならじを
見し月影はひとりならじを
- Roma-ji
-
Tare yue ka akugareniken kumoma yori mishi tsukikage wa hitori naraji o
- English Translation
-
For whose sake, then, was it
that your heart went wandering?
The moonlight you glimpsed
through a rift among the clouds
was not shining all alone
- Meaning
- For whose sake did your heart wander away? The moonlight you glimpsed through the gaps in the clouds was surely not just one alone.
- Commentary
-
Book Twelve Love Poems II 751
Headnote: "Sent in reply to someone who had said that his heart wandered away after glimpsing people making music in the palace on a bright moonlit night"
Sent in reply to someone who had said that his heart went wandering after he glimpsed people making music in the palace on a night of bright moonlight. For whose sake did your heart wander, she asks; the moonlight you saw through the clouds was surely not one alone. Likening the court ladies to moonlight, she lightly turns aside his words and asks in return which of the many there had stolen his heart.
The author, "Owari of the Inpumon'in," was a lady-in-waiting who served Princess Ryōshi, the Inpumon'in. Little is known of her career.
First line, "tare yue ka": "ka" is an interrogative particle binding with "ken" in the second line, "for whose sake."
Second line, "akugareniken": "akugaru" is for the heart to leave the body and wander, and "ken" is the attributive of the past conjectural "kemu," "did it wander away?" The poem pauses here.
Third line, "kumoma yori": "through a gap in the clouds," taking up "glimpsed" in the headnote.
Fourth line, "mishi tsukikage wa": "tsukikage" is moonlight, figuring the people of the court who were making music.
Fifth line, "hitori naraji o": "ji" is the negative conjectural and "o" adversative lament, "it was not just one, surely."
- Author
- Owari
- Source
- Senzai Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Chigirioku sono koto no ha ni mi o kaete nochi no yo ni dani aimiteshikana
- Next Poem
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Koeyarade koiji ni mayou Ōsaka ya yo o idehatenu seki to naruran