苔深き石間を伝ふ山水の
音こそ立てね年は経にけり
音こそ立てね年は経にけり
- Roma-ji
-
Koke fukaki ishima o tsutau yamamizu no oto koso tatene toshi wa henikeri
- English Translation
-
Like the mountain water
that trickles between the stones
where the moss grows deep,
though I have raised no sound,
the years have passed me by.
- Meaning
- Like mountain water trickling silently between moss-deep stones, I have never raised a sound, yet years have passed in my secret longing.
- Commentary
-
Love Poems 449
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Among poems on love"
Like mountain water trickling silently through moss-deep stones, the poet has never voiced his love, yet years have slipped by in secret longing. Turning from the violent torrents of the preceding poems, it expresses hidden love through quietly flowing water.
The base text adds glosses to the lower verse, which according to its notes come from Sasaki Nobutsuna's annotated edition. Here the base text is followed.
Line 1 means "where the moss grows deep."
Line 2 means "trickling between the stones."
Line 3 means "like the mountain water," leading to "sound"; quiet water is set against the violent stream of the preceding poem.
Line 4: koso is concluded by the evaluative tatene, turning adversative: "though I raise no sound," overlaid with keeping love unknown.
Line 5: the exclamatory keri expresses the realization that years have passed.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
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