思ひあまりいかで漏らさむ小野山の
岩垣込むる谷の下水
岩垣込むる谷の下水
- Roma-ji
-
Omoi amari ikade morasamu onoyama no iwagaki komuru tani no shitamizu
- English Translation
-
My love overflows:
how can I let it leak out,
like the hidden stream
walled in by the rocks
deep in Ono's mountain valley
- Meaning
- My love brims over; how can I let it seep out, this love like the water flowing hidden in a valley walled in by the rocks of Ono's mountain?
- Commentary
-
Book Seven Love Poems I 382
Love brims in the poet's heart and he longs to let it be known, yet it flows unseen like water hidden in a valley walled in by the rocks of Ono's mountain. Water shut in by rocks with no way out stands for a love that cannot be confessed.
Some manuscripts give the headnote 'Composed at the love-letter contest in the reign of Emperor Horikawa.' It would then be a poem from that contest.
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, 'omoi amari', means my love overflowing, a line with an extra syllable.
Second line, 'ikade morasamu', means how can I let it leak out, and the poem breaks after the second line. Morasu, to let leak, is a word related to the hidden water in the final line.
Third line, 'onoyama no', means of the mountain of Ono, a place name.
Fourth line, 'iwagaki komuru', means shut in by rocks that ring it like a fence.
Final line, 'tani no shitamizu', is the water flowing unseen at the bottom of the valley, closing with a noun. Like 'tanigawa' in poem 368 and 'the buried log in the valley' in the next poem, 383, it sings of a hidden love through a valley.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Kinzane
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
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Tsurakarishi kokoro narai ni aimite mo nao yume ka to zo utagawarekeru
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Toshi furedo hito mo susabenu waga koi ya kuchiki no soma no tani no umoregi