Nagatsuki no amari ni tsuraki kokoro nite imu to wa hito no iu ni ya aruran

長月のあまりにつらき心にて
忌むとは人の言ふにやあるらん

Roma-ji: Nagatsuki no amari ni tsuraki kokoro nite imu to wa hito no iu ni ya aruran
English Translation: The surplus month of
long Nagatsuki, as cold
as that heart of yours,
is it that you tell me so,
that this month must be shunned?
Meaning: Is it from a heart as excessively cold as this surplus month of Nagatsuki that you say the extra month must be shunned?
Commentary: Love Poems 613

Headnote: "In a year with two ninth months, when people were composing on the topic 'love that shuns the intercalary month'"
The headnote tells us this was composed in a year with an intercalary ninth month, when people were writing on the topic of love that shuns the intercalary month. To a lover who refuses to meet him on the pretext that the extra month is to be avoided, the poet asks whether she says so out of a heart as excessively cold as that surplus month of Nagatsuki. Amari joins the surplus month with 'excessively,' making deft use of the topic.

First line, “Nagatsuki no”: Nagatsuki is the ninth month of the old calendar, taking up the intercalary ninth month of the headnote.
Second line, “amari ni tsuraki”: amari is a pivot word joining the surplus month with 'excessively'; tsurashi is cold-hearted.
Third line, “kokoro nite”: from such a heart.
Fourth line, “imu to wa hito no”: that the extra month must be shunned, as she says, answering the topic.
Fifth line, “iu ni ya aruran”: is it that she says so? ya and the conjectural ran answer each other.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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