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Japanese
English
Audio: NHK Creative Library
Read by LibriVox volunteer Larry Wilson.
Audio courtesy of LibriVox (Public Domain).
中納言兼輔
みかの原
わきて流るる
いづみ川
いつ見きとてか
恋しかるらむ
いつみきと
てかこひし
かるらむ
みかの
- Poem 27
- みかの原
わきて流るる
いづみ川
いつ見きとてか 恋しかるらむ
Author: Middle Counselor Kanesuke (877–933)
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashū, Love
- English Verse Translation
- Oh! rippling River Izumi, That flows through Mika plain, Why should the maid I saw but now
And soon shall see again Torment my love-sick brain?
— William N. Porter, 1909
- Modern Translation
- Like the Izumi River that wells up and flows through Mika Plain — when did I first see you, that I should long for you so?
- Commentary
- Falling in love with a woman one has never actually met is hard to imagine today, but among Heian-period aristocrats, whose opportunities to see each other face to face were limited, it seems people really did fall in love after catching a glimpse through a screen, or simply hearing rumors of someone's reputation. Mika Plain lies along the northern bank of the Kizu River in southern Kyoto Prefecture, and the Izumi River is an old name for that same river.
- About the Poet
- Middle Counselor Kanesuke (Fujiwara no Kanesuke) was the great-grandfather of Murasaki Shikibu. He recognized the talents of Ki no Tsurayuki and Ōshikōchi no Mitsune and supported their careers as poets. Because his residence stood near the embankment of the Kamo River, he came to be known as "the Tsutsumi (Embankment) Middle Counselor."
- Middle Counselor Kanesuke's Chart of the Heart
-
A chart and a modern-language reflection of the poet's inner feelings.
The Poet's Feelings (A Personal Interpretation)
Watching the river flow by,
I picture your face.We've never even spoken,
and yet I can't get you out of my heart.
- Poem Illustration
-
This image is based on an illustration from William N. Porter's A Hundred Verses from Old Japan, his 1909 English translation of the Hyakunin Isshu published in England, colorized and reworked using Adobe Firefly (generative AI).