折らぬより袖ぞ濡れぬる女郎花
露結ぼれて立てるけしきに
露結ぼれて立てるけしきに
- Roma-ji
-
Oranu yori sode zo nurenuru ominaeshi tsuyu musuborete tateru keshiki ni
- English Translation
-
Before I break it,
my sleeves are already wet:
the maidenflower,
with its dew bound up in knots,
in the way that it stands there.
- Meaning
- Even before I pick it my sleeves are wet, at the sight of the maidenflower standing there, its dew knotted up as though it were heavy with sorrow.
- Commentary
-
Autumn Poems 281
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Maidenflower wearing dew"
This poem continues the topic of the preceding one. Even before he picks the maidenflower, the poet's sleeves are already wet, at the sight of the flower standing knotted with dew as though sunk in brooding thought. Moved by the flower drooping under the dew, he has shed tears without meaning to.
Where the preceding poem said the dew wets the sleeves of the one who picks, this one says the sleeves are wet with tears even before picking, turning from dew touched by the hand to tears shed by a heart that has been moved. It also echoes 267, where dew spills even on the sleeves of one who passes without picking.
First line, “oranu yori”: from before picking it, taking up and reversing oru sode nurasu in the preceding poem.
Second line, “sode zo nurenuru”: zo is answered by nuru, the attributive of the perfective nu, my sleeves have become wet; the poem breaks after the second line.
Third line, “ominaeshi”: the maidenflower, subject of the lines that follow, which describe it wearing dew.
Fourth line, “tsuyu musuborete”: musuboru means both for dew to form beads and for the heart to be weighed down, so the flower is seen as someone lost in brooding.
Fifth line, “tateru keshiki ni”: at the way it stands there, giving afterward by inversion the reason the sleeves are wet.
- Author
- Saigyō
- Source
- Sankashu
- Prev Poem
-
Hana ga e ni tsuyu no shiratama nukikakete oru sode nurasu ominaeshi kana
- Next Poem
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Ike no omo ni kage o sayaka ni utsushite mo mizukagami miru ominaeshi kana