つれもなく絶えにし人を雁がねの
帰る心と思はましかば
帰る心と思はましかば
- Roma-ji
-
Tsure mo naku taenishi hito o karigane no kaeru kokoro to omowamashikaba
- English Translation
-
The one who so coldly
broke it off with me, if I
thought that, like the geese,
hers was a heart that returns,
how much easier it would be!
- Meaning
- If only I could think that the one who so coldly broke off with me had the heart of the wild geese, which leave in spring yet come back again.
- Commentary
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Love Poems 600
Headnote: "Love expressed through returning geese"
The topic is love expressed through geese returning north in spring. The geese that leave in spring come back again in autumn. If only the poet could think that the one who coldly broke off with him had the heart of such returning geese, he might be consoled. The poem leaves its consequence unsaid after the last line, leaving the grief of being unable to think so to linger beyond the words.
First line, “tsure mo naku”: coldly.
Second line, “taenishi hito o”: the one whose visits have ceased.
Third line, “karigane no”: karigane are the wild geese, answering the topic.
Fourth line, “kaeru kokoro to”: the heart of geese that go north in spring yet return in autumn.
Fifth line, “omowamashikaba”: mashikaba is counterfactual: if only I could think so; the consequence is left unsaid.
- Author
- Saigyō
- Source
- Sankashu
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