Utsutae ni omou bakari wa iwanedomo tayori ni tsukete tazunenu bakari zo

うつたへに思ふばかりは言はねども
便りにつけて尋ねぬばかりぞ

Roma-ji: Utsutae ni omou bakari wa iwanedomo tayori ni tsukete tazunenu bakari zo
English Translation: How deeply I think
of you I will not say
in so many words;
I have only sent to ask
how you fare, by this letter.
Meaning: I will not tell you how wholeheartedly I think of you; I have merely taken the chance of this letter to ask how you are.
Commentary: Miscellaneous Poems 599

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed and sent by a messenger when a certain person had gone up to the capital"
The poet says he will not voice the full depth of his feeling; he has only taken the chance of a letter to ask after the other's health. It has the air of shyly brushing aside the strong feelings voiced in the preceding poems.
The base text reads line 1 as utae ni, the Ruijū text as uchitaete, and the text transmitted by Teika differently again; it was corrected to utsutae ni after Kamo no Mabuchi, and that reading is followed here.

Line 1 means "wholeheartedly."
Line 2 means "how much I think."
Line 3 means "though I do not say," adversative.
Line 4 means "using the chance of a letter."
Line 5 means "I only asked," nu perfective and zo emphatic, eight syllables; line 3 and line 5 answer each other, and bakari is repeated in lines 2 and 5.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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