あだなりし人の心に比ぶれば
花も常磐のものとこそ見れ
花も常磐のものとこそ見れ
- Roma-ji
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Ada narishi hito no kokoro ni kurabureba hana mo tokiwa no mono to koso mire
- English Translation
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When I set it beside
the fickle heart of the one
who was false to me,
even the flowers I see
as things that never change
- Meaning
- Compared with the fickle heart of the one who was false to me, even the blossoms seem to me things that never change.
- Commentary
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Book Seven Love Poems I 411
Compared with the fickle heart of the one who was false, even quickly scattering flowers seem changeless. By turning the flower, emblem of transience, into something everlasting, the poem stresses how changeable the other's heart was.
Some manuscripts give the headnote 'Love likened to flowers.' It would then be a poem on that topic.
The author, Tadamichi, is Fujiwara no Tadamichi. A son of the Regent Fujiwara no Tadazane, he served in turn as Regent, Chancellor and Grand Minister, was known as the Hosshōji Lay Priest, and has a poem in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
First line, 'ada narishi', means that was fickle, using the attributive of the past ki.
Second line, 'hito no kokoro ni', means with that person's heart.
Third line, 'kurabureba', means when I compare, the realis with ba forming a definite condition.
Fourth line, 'hana mo tokiwa no', means even the flowers as evergreen, seeing the quickly fading blossoms as changeless.
Final line, 'mono to koso mire', means so I see them, the particle koso binding with the realis mire.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Tadamichi
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
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