たなばたの待ちつるほどの苦しさも
あかぬ別れといづれまされり
あかぬ別れといづれまされり
- Roma-ji
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Tanabata no machitsuru hodo no kurushisa mo akanu wakare to izure masareri
- English Translation
-
The Weaver Maid's
pain through all the time she waited,
and its bitterness,
or this parting, still unsated:
which is it that is greater?
- Meaning
- The pain the Weaver Maid felt all the while she waited, or the sorrow of this parting that leaves her longing still: which is the greater?
- Commentary
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Book Three Autumn Poems 92
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed on the theme of the morning after Tanabata, at Tachibana no Toshitsuna's mountain villa in Fushimi"
The author is listed here as an unnumbered poet, but the Shikashu attributes the poem to Fujiwara no Akitsuna. Like the preceding poem, it takes the parting on the morning after Tanabata as its theme.
It weighs the pain of waiting a whole year against the regret of parting just after meeting, and asks which is harder to bear. It is an intellectual conceit that sets the suffering before and after the meeting side by side.
The first line, "tanabata no," means "the Weaver Maid's," placing at the start the same word that appears in the third line of the preceding poem, 91.
The second line, "machitsuru hodo no," means "of the time she waited," the long year of waiting.
The third line, "kurushisa mo," is the pain of waiting, set against the sorrow of parting in the fourth line.
The fourth line, "akanu wakare to," means "and the parting still unsatisfied," with to placing the two side by side.
The last line, "izure masareri," asks "which is greater?" closing with the paired contrast of waiting and parting.
- Source
- Shika Wakashu
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Au yo to wa tare ka wa shiranu tanabata no akuru sora o mo tsutsumazaranamu
- Next Poem
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Ama no gawa kaeranu mizu o tanabata wa urayamashi to ya kesa wa miruramu