秋風に吹き返されて葛の葉の
いかにうらみしものとかは知る
いかにうらみしものとかは知る
- Roma-ji
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Akikaze ni fukikaesarete kuzu no ha no ika ni uramishi mono to ka wa shiru
- English Translation
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Blown back by the wind
of autumn, the kudzu leaves
turn their undersides:
how deeply I resented you,
do you think you know at all
- Meaning
- Like kudzu leaves blown back by the autumn wind to show their undersides, how bitterly I resented you, do you really know?
- Commentary
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Book Seven Love Poems I 392
Like kudzu leaves blown back by the autumn wind to show their white undersides, the poet resented the other bitterly, and the other can hardly know how much. With the conceit that joins urami, seeing the underside of the leaf, to urami, resentment, the poem voices resentment at the beloved's coldness.
Some manuscripts name Fujiwara no Masaie as the author.
The Kokinshū has a poem by Taira no Sadafun on resentment set beside kudzu leaves turned over by the autumn wind, so the conceit of kudzu and resentment is an old one.
First line, 'akikaze ni', means by the autumn wind, aki echoing aki, weariness, to hint at the beloved's change of heart.
Second line, 'fukikaesarete', means blown back, as the kudzu leaves turn over.
Third line, 'kuzu no ha no', means of the kudzu leaves, and the first three lines form a preface leading to urami, showing the underside.
Fourth line, 'ika ni uramishi', is a pivot word in which urami means both urami, seeing the underside of the leaf, and urami, resentment, left in kana. 'Suma no uramite' in poem 357 in this book uses the same pivot word.
Final line, 'mono to ka wa shiru', means do you know it to be so, the particle ka wa forming a rhetorical question meaning you do not.
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
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