これにしく思ひはなきを草枕
旅に返すはいなむしろとや
旅に返すはいなむしろとや
- Roma-ji
-
Kore ni shiku omoi wa naki o kusamakura tabi ni kaesu wa inamushiro to ya
- English Translation
-
No longing can match
this love of mine, and yet you,
as with grass for pillow,
send me back as on a journey:
is it a straw-mat 'no' you say
- Meaning
- There is no love to equal mine, yet you send me back like a traveler on the road; is that your 'no', spread out like a straw mat?
- Commentary
-
Book Seven Love Poems I 353
Though no love could be deeper than his, the poet asks whether sending him back like a traveler is her way of saying 'no', as in inamushiro, a straw mat. Stringing together words tied to bedding, shiku, kusamakura and mushiro, he puts wit into his complaint.
Some manuscripts give the headnote 'Sent to a woman who was cold to him.'
The author, Kinzane, is Fujiwara no Kinzane. A son of Fujiwara no Sanesue, he served as Master of the Crown Prince's Household and rose to Provisional Major Counselor, and was one of the poets of the Horikawa Hundred-Poem Sequences.
First line, 'kore ni shiku', means to match this, shiku, to equal, echoing shiku, to spread out. It is related to kusamakura in the third line and mushiro in the final line.
Second line, 'omoi wa naki o', means though there is no love, using the concessive o.
Third line, 'kusamakura', is a pillow word for tabi, journey. 'Pillow of grass' in poem 385 and 'kusamakura' in poem 405 in this book likewise sing of sleeping on a journey.
Fourth line, 'tabi ni kaesu wa', means sending me back as on a journey, turning him away without letting him in.
Final line, 'inamushiro to ya', is a pivot word in which inamushiro means both ina, no, and inamushiro, a mat woven of rice straw, left in kana. A mat also appears in 'samushiro' in poem 390 in this book.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Kinzane
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
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Saritomo to omou kagiri wa shinobarete tori to tomo ni zo ne wa nakarekeru
- Next Poem
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Au to mite utsutsu no kai wa nakeredomo hakanaki yume zo inochi narikeru