思ふことなくて過ぎつる世の中に
つひに心をとどめつるかな
つひに心をとどめつるかな
- Roma-ji
-
Omou koto nakute sugitsuru yo no naka ni tsui ni kokoro o todometsuru kana
- English Translation
-
In this world through which
I had passed without a care
or a troubled thought,
at last I find I have let
my heart come to rest somewhere
- Meaning
- In this world, through which I had passed without a single care, I have at last let my heart settle on someone.
- Commentary
-
Book Eight Love Poems II 241
The poet, who had lived without a care, has at last lost his heart to someone and found himself bound to this world. The poem shows surprise and deep feeling at how knowing love has transformed the state of his heart.
The first line, "omou koto" (troubled thoughts), refers to worries and cares.
The second line, "nakute sugitsuru," uses the attributive perfective "tsuru" to say he had passed his days without such cares.
The third line, "yo no naka ni" (in this world), also suggests the bond between lovers.
The fourth line, "tsui ni kokoro o" (at last my heart), shows that love, long a stranger to him, has finally captured his heart.
The final line, "todometsuru kana," ends with the perfective "tsu" and exclamatory "kana." It uses the same verb as "kokoro o ba todomete" in 236 of this book, so that a heart left with a lover and a heart bound to the world echo one another.
- Source
- Shika Wakashu
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