惜しむとて今宵書き置く言の葉や
あやなく春の形見なるべき
あやなく春の形見なるべき
- Roma-ji
-
Oshimu tote koyoi kakioku kotonoha ya ayanaku haru no katami narubeki
- English Translation
-
Grieving for its loss
tonight the words I write down
and leave behind me,
will they, against all reason,
become the keepsake of spring?
- Meaning
- Will the words I write tonight in sorrow for spring's passing become, against all reason, the keepsake that spring leaves behind?
- Commentary
-
Book One Spring Poems 50
On the last night of spring, the poet wonders whether the words of poetry written in sorrow for its departure will become instead a keepsake of the spring that is gone. In the paradox that words meant to hold spring back remain as proof of its passing lies a deep regret.
It is the closing poem of the spring book. Where poem 1 sang of the coming spring breeze, the book closes with a poem of regret for spring by Retired Emperor Sutoku, who commissioned the Shika Wakashū.
The first line, "grieving for its loss," takes up "the sorrow of spring's passing" from the preceding poem.
The second line, "tonight the words I write down," suggests the last night of spring.
The third line, "and leave behind," refers to the words, that is, the poem, with "ya" raising a question.
In the fourth line, "ayanaku" means without reason, absurdly, a word that recalls "ayana" in the fourth line of 4.
The last line, "become the keepsake of spring," closes a kakari-musubi with the "ya" of the third line and the attributive of the conjectural "beshi." Against spring's arrival in the opening poem, the book closes on spring's keepsake.
- Author
- Retired Emperor Sutoku
- Source
- Shika Wakashu
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Oite koso haru no oshisa wa masarikere ima ikutabi mo awaji to omoeba
- Next Poem
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Kyō yori wa tatsu natsugoromo usuku tomo atsushi to nomi ya omoiwataramu