世の憂さを思ひしのぶと人も見よ
かくてふるやの軒の気色を
かくてふるやの軒の気色を
- Roma-ji
-
Yo no usa o omoishinobu to hito mo miyo kakute furuya no noki no keshiki o
- English Translation
-
Bearing the world's pain
in silence, let others see it
for what it is:
the eaves of this old house where I live,
overgrown with fern of endurance
- Meaning
- Let others see that I bear in silence the sorrows of the world: look at the eaves of this old house where I live on, grown over with fern of endurance.
- Commentary
-
Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems II 1085
Headnote: "Topic unknown"
Let others see that I bear the world's sorrows in silence; look at the eaves of this old house where I live on, he says. Shinobu fern grows thick on the eaves of the aging house. Pointing to that sight, he asks others to see it as the very sign that he lives on enduring the world's hardships. It is a poem that entrusts to the scene of neglected eaves a life grown old while bearing misfortune.
The author, "Fujiwara no Kinshige Ason," was a son of Fujiwara no Michisue. Michisue was the founder of the Saionji family.
Like the preceding poem, 1084, it appeals to others to understand the poet's situation.
First line, "yo no usa o": "the sorrows of the world."
Second line, "omoishinobu to": "shinobu" is a pivot word joining "shinobu," to endure, and shinobu fern, which grows on eaves.
Third line, "hito mo miyo": "miyo" is imperative, "let others see." The poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "kakute furuya no": "furuya" is a pivot word joining "furu," to pass the years, and "furuya," an old house, "of the old house where I live on thus."
Fifth line, "noki no keshiki o": "the look of the eaves," naming through inversion what the third line asks others to see. The fern on the eaves echoes the pivot word of the second line.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Kinshige
- Source
- Senzai Wakashu
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