なかなかに老いは惚れても忘れなで
などか昔をいと偲ぶらむ
などか昔をいと偲ぶらむ
- Roma-ji
-
Nakanaka ni oi wa horete mo wasurenade nado ka mukashi o ito shinoburamu
- English Translation
-
Better far it were
if age would dull my wits
and let me forget;
why then, unforgetting still,
do I long so for the past?
- Meaning
- Better if old age would leave me so dull-witted that I forgot; why, then, do I still remember and long so for the past?
- Commentary
-
Miscellaneous Poems 681
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "At a place called Tsuchiya in Sagami there was a decrepit monk past ninety who came to me of his own accord; while telling tales of old, he wept as he told me he could no longer stand or sit, and then left. At that time I had my people compose on the theme of old age, and I too composed"
In the old monk's voice, the poet laments that if age would only dull his mind he could forget the past; yet he cannot forget, and why does he long for it so? Taking up the pain of remembering in the two preceding poems, it voices the old man's wish to forget.
The Jōkyō text reads lines 3 and 4 as wasurenani to mukashi o, corrected by the marginal gloss, the Ruijū text and the text transmitted by Teika; that correction is followed here.
Line 1 means "rather, better."
Line 2 means "though age grow senile."
Line 3 means "without forgetting," nade a negative connective.
Line 4 means "why the past?" ka concluded by ramu in line 5, taking up "remembering" in the two preceding poems.
Line 5 means "do I so long for it?" ramu conjectural.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
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