水茎の書き流すべき方ぞなき
心のうちは汲みて知らなん
心のうちは汲みて知らなん
- Roma-ji
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Mizuguki no kakinagasu beki kata zo naki kokoro no uchi wa kumite shiranan
- English Translation
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With my writing brush
there is no way I can find
to let my thoughts flow—
what lies within my heart, please,
draw it up and come to know.
- Meaning
- There is no way for me to let my feelings flow out with the brush. Please draw up and understand what lies within my heart.
- Commentary
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Miscellaneous Poems 1136
Headnote: "When the New Retired Emperor was in Sanuki, sent by a lady-in-waiting with a messenger"
This poem was sent to Saigyō by a lady-in-waiting serving the New Retired Emperor, Sutoku, who had been exiled to Sanuki after his defeat in the Hōgen Disturbance. There is no way to let my feelings flow out with the brush, she writes; please draw them up and understand what is in my heart.
The grief of life in exile is expressed as feeling beyond words. Mizuguki, kakinagasu, and kumu form a chain of water imagery, laying overflowing feeling over flowing water. The lady's name is not recorded. Exchanges between ladies in Sanuki and Saigyō follow.
First line, “mizuguki no”: the brush, or brushwork, introducing water imagery.
Second line, “kakinagasu beki”: by which one might write freely; nagasu, "let flow," belongs to the water imagery.
Third line, “kata zo naki”: zo is emphatic, answered by the attributive naki, "there is no way"; the poem breaks here.
Fourth line, “kokoro no uchi wa”: the feelings in my heart.
Fifth line, “kumite shiranan”: nan expresses a wish of another, "please draw it up and know it"; kumu belongs to the water imagery.
- Source
- Sankashu
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Nani to naku miyako no kata o kiku sora wa mutsumashikute zo nagamerarekeru
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Hodo tōmi kayou kokoro no yuku kari nao kakinagase mizuguki no ato