憂き瀬にも嬉しき瀬にも先に立つ
涙は同じ涙なりけり
涙は同じ涙なりけり
- Roma-ji
-
Ukise ni mo ureshiki se ni mo saki ni tatsu namida wa onaji namida narikeri
- English Translation
-
In shallows of sorrow
and in the shallows of joy,
what comes before all
are tears, and they are, I find,
the very same tears
- Meaning
- In times of sorrow and in times of joy alike, the tears that come before all else are, I find, the very same tears.
- Commentary
-
Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems II 1117
Headnote: "Topic unknown"
In times of sorrow and of joy, the tears that come first are the same tears, he says. Though the heart is in opposite states when one weeps in sorrow and when one weeps for joy, he notices that the tears themselves are the same, and sings of the strangeness of the human heart and of tears that flow in joy and grief alike. "Se," from its meaning of river shallows, comes to mean an occasion, and is an associated word of tears.
The author, "Fujiwara no Akikata," was a poet of the late Heian period whose biography is not known in detail.
It shares "se" and tears with the next poem, 1118. Where this poem says that the tears of sorrow and of joy are the same, the next says the river of tears rises in the shallows of grief at being passed over for pardon, both laying shallows and tears together.
First line, "ukise ni mo": "se," from river shallows, means an occasion, "in times of sorrow." It shares "se" with "kono se ni mo" in the first line of the next poem, 1118.
Second line, "ureshiki se ni mo": "in times of joy," pairing with the first line.
Third line, "saki ni tatsu": "that come before all else."
Fourth line, "namida wa onaji": "the tears are the same."
Fifth line, "namida narikeri": repeating "namida" from the fourth line, "they are the very same tears," with exclamation.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Akikata
- Source
- Senzai Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Morohito no hana saku haru o yoso ni mite nao shigururu wa shiishiba no sode
- Next Poem
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Kono se ni mo shizumu to kiku wa namidagawa nagareshi yori mo nao masarikeri