厭ひてもなほ惜しまるる我が身かな
二たび来べきこの世ならねば
二たび来べきこの世ならねば
- Roma-ji
-
Itoite mo nao oshimaruru waga mi kana futatabi ku beki kono yo naraneba
- English Translation
-
Though I loathe this world,
how I still find myself
loath to part with life,
for it is not a world
to which one comes a second time
- Meaning
- Though I loathe this world, I still find myself clinging to my life, for this is not a world to which one may come a second time.
- Commentary
-
Book Nine Miscellaneous Poems I 346
Though weary of this sorrowful world, the poet still finds himself clinging to life when he thinks that one cannot be born into it twice. The poem frankly expresses a heart wavering between the wish to renounce the world and attachment to a life lived only once.
Poem 327 of this book also uses "futatabi" (twice), supposing one could die twice. The two poems on a single life and death echo each other.
The first line, "itoite mo," uses "mo": even while loathing this world.
The second line, "nao oshimaruru," uses the attributive spontaneous "ru": I cannot help but cling.
The third line, "waga mi kana" (this self of mine), ends with the exclamatory "kana," with a break after the third line.
The fourth line, "futatabi ku beki," uses the attributive "beki" in a potential sense: to which one could come twice.
The final line, "kono yo naraneba," is a conditional of certainty with the perfective negative and "ba," giving by inversion the reason: since this is no such world.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Suemichi
- Source
- Shika Wakashu
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