取り残し思ひもかけぬ露払ひ
あなくらたかの我が心や
あなくらたかの我が心や
- Roma-ji
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Torinokoshi omoi mo kakenu tsuyuharai ana kuratakano waga kokoro ya
- English Translation
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Left behind I am,
a clearer of the dew,
never what I'd dreamed—
ah, how dark and blind it is,
this foolish heart of mine.
- Meaning
- Left behind, I have ended up as one who merely clears the dew from another's path, never what I had imagined. Ah, how blind and dark this heart of mine is!
- Commentary
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Miscellaneous Poems 1341
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "One hundred and ten love poems"
Left behind, he has ended as an unexpected clearer of the dew, a mere forerunner; ah, how blind his heart is, the poet says.
The poem is full of hard-to-construe words and its meaning is unsettled. Tsuyuharai, one who goes ahead clearing dew from the path, may lament having ended as a mere forerunner for another in love. Ana kuratakano is also obscure, taken here as "ah, unseeing, dark."
First line, “torinokoshi”: taken as "left behind."
Second line, “omoi mo kakenu”: unexpected.
Third line, “tsuyuharai”: one who goes ahead clearing the dew, a forerunner; the poem breaks here.
Fourth line, “ana kuratakano”: hard to construe; ana is an interjection, read as "ah, unseeing."
Fifth line, “waga kokoro ya”: ya is exclamatory, "this heart of mine."
- Author
- Saigyō
- Source
- Sankashu
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