奥山の末のたつきもいざ知らず
妹に逢はずて年の経ゆけば
妹に逢はずて年の経ゆけば
- Roma-ji
-
Okuyama no sue no tazuki mo iza shirazu imo ni awazute toshi no he yukeba
- English Translation
-
In the inmost hills
no path to reach the farthest end—
who knows what will come?
Not meeting my beloved,
the years go passing by.
- Meaning
- As there is no path to the far end of the deep mountains, I cannot know where this will lead; the years pass by without my meeting my beloved.
- Commentary
-
Love Poems 440
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Among poems on love"
As there is no way to the far end of the deep mountains, the poet cannot know where his love will lead, and he voices his unease as the years pass without meeting his beloved. Like the preceding poem, it uses the words okuyama and tazuki.
The base text glosses the character for "pass" in line 5 with yukue. Here the base text is followed.
Line 1 is the same as line 1 of the preceding poem.
Line 2 means "no way to the far end," overlaid with love's future; it takes up line 2 of the preceding poem.
Line 3 means "who can tell," and the poem pauses here.
Line 4 means "without meeting my love," zute being a Man'yō form adding te to the negative.
Line 5 means "as the years go by," widening the heart's wandering of the preceding poem to the measure of years.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
- Prev Poem
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Okuyama no tazuki mo shiranu kimi ni yori waga kokoro kara mayoubera nari
- Next Poem
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Shiramayumi isobe no yama no matsu no iro no tokiwa ni mono o omou koro kana