先の世の契りを知らではかなくも
人をつらしと思ひけるかな
人をつらしと思ひけるかな
- Roma-ji
-
Saki no yo no chigiri o shirade hakanaku mo hito o tsurashi to omoikeru kana
- English Translation
-
Unaware of bonds
that were fixed in a former life,
how foolishly
I have taken you to be
so cruel and so cold
- Meaning
- Not knowing the bond fixed for us in a former life, how foolishly I have thought you heartless.
- Commentary
-
Book Eight Love Poems II 438
Not knowing that their failure to meet came from a bond fixed in a former life, the poet says, he foolishly resented the beloved as heartless. Seeing love's pain anew as karma from a past life, he reflects on his own resentment.
Poem 398 in Book Seven speaks of a future life, saying that if love turns bitter after meeting he will wander in a still greater love through world after world; this poem, speaking of a former life, shares its view of love as a bond reaching across many lives.
First line, 'saki no yo no', means of a former life.
Second line, 'chigiri o shirade', means not knowing the bond, chigiri being a pledge or karmic tie from a past life. It uses the negative connective de.
Third line, 'hakanaku mo', means foolishly.
Fourth line, 'hito o tsurashi to', means that you were heartless.
Final line, 'omoikeru kana', means so I thought, the attributive of the exclamatory keri followed by kana expressing a realization reached only now.
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
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