思はむと頼めし人の昔にも
あらずなるとのうらめしきかな
あらずなるとのうらめしきかな
- Roma-ji
-
Omowamu to tanomeshi hito no mukashi ni mo arazu Naruto no urameshiki kana
- English Translation
-
The one who swore
'I will love you' and gave me hope
is not as of old,
changed like the strait of Naruto—
how bitter is that shore
- Meaning
- The one who led me to trust in the words I will always love you is no longer as before; like the shores of Naruto, how bitter it is.
- Commentary
-
Book Eight Love Poems II 430
The poet resents that the one who led him to trust in an enduring love has changed from what he once was. Weaving in the Naruto strait of Awa and its shore through pivot words, the poem expresses resentment toward a lover whose heart has turned.
The author, Eien, was a son of Fujiwara no Nagasuke and a poet-monk of the Kōfukuji who rose to Provisional Archbishop. Famed for his poems on the cuckoo, he was called the Archbishop of the First Song, and he was also one of the poets of the Horikawa Hundred-Poem Sequences.
First line, 'omowamu to', means I will love you, using the volitional mu.
Second line, 'tanomeshi hito no', means the one who gave me hope, with the lower bigrade tanomu followed by shi, the attributive of the past ki.
Third line, 'mukashi ni mo', means as in the past.
Fourth line, 'arazu naru to no', is a pivot word in which naruto means both becoming otherwise and Naruto, a famous place in Awa, left in kana.
Final line, 'urameshiki kana', is a pivot word in which ura means both the shore of Naruto and the ura of urameshi, bitter, left in kana. The poem closes with the exclamatory kana.
- Author
- Yoen
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
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Michinoku no omoi shinobu ni arinagara kokoro ni kakaru Au no Matsubara
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Kururu ma mo sadamenaki yo ni au koto o itsu tomo shirade koiwataru kana