我が思ふことの繁さにくらぶれば
信太の森の千枝は数かは
信太の森の千枝は数かは
- Roma-ji
-
Waga omou koto no shigesa ni kurabureba Shinoda no mori no chie wa kazu ka wa
- English Translation
-
When I set beside
the thickness of the many
cares within my heart
the thousand boughs of Shinoda's
forest, can they even count
- Meaning
- Set beside the countless cares that crowd my heart, can the thousand branches of the forest of Shinoda even be counted as many?
- Commentary
-
Book Ten Miscellaneous Poems II 365
Compared with the multitude of his cares, the poet says, even the camphor tree of the forest of Shinoda, famed for its thousand branches, does not count. Invoking the celebrated thousand branches, the poem exaggerates the endlessness of his brooding.
Poem 295 of Book Nine also sang of the thousand branches of Shinoda, there so lit by the moon that even their number could be seen.
The first line, "waga omou," means what I brood over.
The second line, "koto no shigesa ni," refers to the abundance of cares; "shigesa" (thickness) is associated with a forest's growth.
The third line, "kurabureba," is a conditional of certainty: when I compare.
The fourth line, "Shinoda no mori no," names a poetic place in Izumi Province, a forest famed for its camphor of a thousand branches.
The final line, "chie wa kazu ka wa," uses the rhetorical "ka wa": the thousand branches hardly count.
- Author
- Zōki
- Source
- Shika Wakashu
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