山賤の荒野をしめて住み初むる
かただよりなる恋もするかな
かただよりなる恋もするかな
- Roma-ji
-
Yamagatsu no arano o shimete sumisomuru katadayori naru koi mo suru kana
- English Translation
-
Like the mountain folk
who claim a plot of wild land
and settle there to live,
leaning on one side alone
is the love that I am in.
- Meaning
- Like a mountain dweller who stakes out a patch of wild land and begins to live there, mine is a love that leans on one side alone.
- Commentary
-
Love Poems 655
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Love"
A humble mountain dweller marks off a corner of wild land as his own and settles there. Just so, the poet is in a precarious, one-sided love, having fixed his heart from his side alone without knowing the beloved's feelings. The uncertain life of the mountain dweller settling on wild land is laid over the insecurity of unrequited love.
First line, “yamagatsu no”: yamagatsu are humble mountain folk, woodcutters and hunters.
Second line, “arano o shimete”: shimu is to mark as one's own, to claim.
Third line, “sumisomuru”: beginning to live there; the first three lines serve as an image of one-sided love.
Fourth line, “katadayori naru”: katadayori is taken to mean leaning on one side only, expressing unrequited love.
Fifth line, “koi mo suru kana”: kana is exclamatory: such a love it is that I have. The same closing line as 594 in this book.
- Author
- Saigyō
- Source
- Sankashu
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