我が恋は朧の清水いはでのみ
塞きやる方もなくて暮らしつ
塞きやる方もなくて暮らしつ
- Roma-ji
-
Waga koi wa Oboro no shimizu iwade nomi sekiyaru kata mo nakute kurashitsu
- English Translation
-
This love of mine is
like the spring of Oboro,
unspoken, by rocks
held back, with no way to let
it flow, I have passed my days
- Meaning
- My love is like the Oboro spring, hidden among the rocks and never spoken, and I have lived my days with no way to let it flow.
- Commentary
-
Book Eleven Variant Poems 688
The poet's love, like the Oboro spring flowing in the shadow of rocks, is never spoken, and with no way to release the feelings held back, the poet has passed the days. Unable to let the longing out, the poet likens it to a spring dammed by the rocks.
This poem is found only in a variant manuscript line of the anthology; in the variant order it is placed after 353 in Book Seven. Poems of love held hidden from others stand around it.
The author, Toshiyori, is Minamoto no Toshiyori, a son of the Major Counselor Minamoto no Tsunenobu, who became Head of the Carpentry Office. He was the compiler of this anthology, and his personal collection is the Sanboku Kika Shū. One of his poems appears in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
First line, 'waga koi wa', means my love.
Second line, 'Oboro no shimizu', means the Oboro spring, a famous place at Ōhara in Yamashiro, a figure for the poet's love.
Third line, 'iwade nomi', joins iwa de, by the rocks, with iwade, without speaking, overlaying a spring held back by rocks with love never voiced.
Fourth line, 'sekiyaru kata mo', means no way to release it, seku, to dam, being associated with the spring.
Final line, 'nakute kurashitsu', means I have spent my days without one, closing with the perfective tsu. Spring, rocks and damming are associated words.
- Author
- Minamoto no Toshiyori
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
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