身のほどを思ひ知りぬることのみや
つれなき人の情けなるらむ
つれなき人の情けなるらむ
- Roma-ji
-
Mi no hodo o omoishirinuru koto nomi ya tsurenaki hito no nasake naruramu
- English Translation
-
To come to know my
own place in the world so well,
is it this alone
that is the only kindness
shown by one so cold to me
- Meaning
- Is my being made to know my own worth the only kindness that cold-hearted person has shown me?
- Commentary
-
Book Eleven Variant Poems 715
All the poet has received from the cold beloved is the knowledge of the poet's own worth; is that alone the beloved's kindness? Learning one's own inadequacy through unrequited love, the poet ironically calls it the other's kindness.
This poem is found only in a variant manuscript line of the anthology; in the variant it is one of the love poems placed after 665 in Book Ten, the closing poem of the anthology.
First line, 'mi no hodo o', means my own station.
Second line, 'omoishirinuru', means having come to know, using the attributive of the perfective nu.
Third line, 'koto nomi ya', means is it only this, the particle ya of question answered by ramu in the final line.
Fourth line, 'tsurenaki hito no', means of that cold person.
Final line, 'nasake naruramu', means the kindness, the copula nari followed by the present conjectural ramu.
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Koishinade kokorozukushi ni ima made mo tanomureba koso Iki no Matsubara
- Next Poem
-
Aku to iu koto mo shirabaya kurenai no namida ni somaru sode ya kaeru to