幾かへりつらしと人をみくまのの
うらめしながら恋しかるらむ
うらめしながら恋しかるらむ
- Roma-ji
-
Ikukaeri tsurashi to hito o Mikumano no urameshi nagara koishikaruramu
- English Translation
-
How many times now
have I seen how cold you are,
like the Kumano shore,
resenting you, and even so
still longing for you as before
- Meaning
- How many times have I seen how cold you are — as surely as the shore of Kumano — and resented you, yet still go on longing for you?
- Commentary
-
Book Eight Love Poems II 269
The poet sings of a heart in which resentment and longing are tangled together, though she has learned again and again how cold the beloved is. Playing "mi" (to see) against "Mikumano," and "ura" (shore) against "urameshi" (resentful), she uses the famous shore of Kumano to voice the contradictions of a love she cannot cut off.
The first line, "ikukaeri" (how many times), stresses repetition.
The second line, "tsurashi to hito o," refers to her sense of the beloved's coldness.
The third line, "Mikumano no," is a pivot word joining "mi" (to see) the beloved and Mikumano, a poetic place in Kii Province.
The fourth line, "urameshi nagara," joins the "ura" (shore) of Mikumano with "urameshi" (resentful), and the concessive "nagara" gives "though I resent him."
The final line, "koishikaruramu," uses the conjectural "ramu" in answer to "ikukaeri" in the first line: how many times will I long for him?
- Author
- Izumi Shikibu
- Source
- Shika Wakashu
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