慰むる方もなくてや止みなまし
夢にも人のつれなかりせば
夢にも人のつれなかりせば
- Roma-ji
-
Nagusamuru kata mo nakute ya yaminamashi yume ni mo hito no tsurenakariseba
- English Translation
-
Consolation none —
would it all have ended so,
with nothing to ease me,
if even in my dreams
you had been as heartless
- Meaning
- Would my love simply have ended, with nothing at all to console me, if even in my dreams you had been as cold as you are?
- Commentary
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Book Seven Love Poems I 194
The poet can bear love's pain only because he meets the beloved in dreams; had she been cold even there, he says, there would have been no comfort at all. The poem expresses, through a counterfactual, a love whose only support is meeting in dreams.
The first line, "nagusamuru" (to console), takes up the third line of the preceding poem, 193, and answers its dream of comfort from the reverse side.
The second line, "kata mo nakute ya" (without any means), uses the particle "ya" to pose a question.
The third line, "yaminamashi," uses the counterfactual "mashi" to close the kakari-musubi begun by "ya," with a break after the third line.
The fourth line, "yume ni mo hito no," uses "mo" to mean not only in waking life but even in dreams.
The final line, "tsurenakariseba," pairs "seba" with "mashi" in a counterfactual, taking up "tsurenaki hito mo" from the preceding poem to imagine heartlessness reaching even into dreams.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Kinyoshi
- Source
- Shika Wakashu
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