何事につけてか世をば厭はまし
憂かりし人ぞ今日は嬉しき
憂かりし人ぞ今日は嬉しき
- Roma-ji
-
Nanigoto ni tsukete ka yo o ba itowamashi ukarishi hito zo kyō wa ureshiki
- English Translation
-
Upon what pretext
should I come to scorn the world
and cast it aside?
The one who was so cruel
is today a cause of joy.
- Meaning
- On what pretext should I now forsake the world? The one who was once so cold has today become my joy.
- Commentary
-
Miscellaneous Poems 1349
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "One hundred and ten love poems"
On what pretext should he now forsake the world, the poet asks, when the one who was so cold is today his joy?
The beloved who had been cold has opened her heart, and in that joy he has lost his reason to renounce the world. Advancing the preceding poem's heart, drawn to love while wishing to forsake the world, it shows how love's joy shakes even the wish for renunciation.
First line, “nanigoto ni”: on what matter.
Second line, “tsukete ka yo o ba”: ka questions, "taking it as a pretext, the world."
Third line, “itowamashi”: mashi expresses hesitant will, "should I forsake?"; the poem breaks here.
Fourth line, “ukarishi hito zo”: the one who was cold; zo is answered by the attributive ureshiki.
Fifth line, “kyō wa ureshiki”: today is a joy, the inversion showing that the reason to forsake the world is gone.
- Author
- Saigyō
- Source
- Sankashu
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Au to mishi sono yo nori no samete are na nagaki nemuri wa ukaru bekeredo