いづくとも身をやる方の知られねば
憂しと見つつもながらふるかな
憂しと見つつもながらふるかな
- Roma-ji
-
Izuku tomo mi o yaru kata no shirareneba ushi to mitsutsu mo nagarauru kana
- English Translation
-
Since I do not know
of anywhere at all
to send myself away,
I go on living, though I see
how sorrowful this world is
- Meaning
- Since I know of nowhere at all to which I might send myself away, I live on, seeing all the while how hard this world is.
- Commentary
-
Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems II 1126
Headnote: "Topic unknown"
Since I know of nowhere to send myself away, I live on though I see how sorrowful the world is, she says. Even when she finds the world painful, there is nowhere to take refuge. So she has no choice but to live on in it, knowing its pain, and she quietly sings the lament of one with nowhere to go.
The author, "Murasaki Shikibu," was a daughter of Fujiwara no Tametoki. She served Jōtōmon'in Shōshi and wrote The Tale of Genji.
It shares "izuku," where, and the place of the self with 1150 of this book, which asks where one might hide if there were no deep mountains to flee to. It also shares "nagarau" with "nagaraete" in the third line of 1113 of this book.
First line, "izuku tomo": "to anywhere at all." It recalls "izuku nite" in the first line of 1073 and "izuku ni ka" in the first line of 1150 of this book.
Second line, "mi o yaru kata no": "yaru" means to send, "a place to send myself."
Third line, "shirareneba": "re" is the irrealis of the auxiliary of possibility "ru" and "ne" the realis of the negative "zu," giving the reason, "since I cannot know one."
Fourth line, "ushi to mitsutsu mo": "while seeing it as sorrowful."
Fifth line, "nagarauru kana": "how I live on." It shares "nagarau" with "nagaraete" in the third line of 1113 of this book.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Senzai Wakashu
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Uki yume wa nagori made koso kanashikere kono yo no nochi mo nao ya nagekan