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Audio: NHK Creative Library
Read by LibriVox volunteer Larry Wilson.
Audio courtesy of LibriVox (Public Domain).
右近
忘らるる
身をば思はず
誓ひてし
人の命の
惜しくもあるかな
ひとのいの
ちのをしく
もあるかな
わすら
- Poem 38
- 忘らるる
身をば思はず
誓ひてし
人の命の 惜しくもあるかな
Author: Ukon (dates unknown)
Source: Shūi Wakashū, Love
- English Verse Translation
- My broken heart I don't lament, To destiny I bow; But thou hast broken solemn oaths,— I pray
the Gods may now Absolve thee from thy vow.
— William N. Porter, 1909
- Modern Translation
- I do not grieve for myself, though I am forgotten. But I worry for you — you who swore an oath. What will become of you?
- Commentary
- This poem describes the poet's worry that divine punishment might fall upon the lover who abandoned her, after he had sworn before the gods to love her forever. He may well have trembled with fear on reading it. According to the Yamato Monogatari, the man in question was Middle Counselor Atsutada — who died young at thirty-seven. Was this, perhaps, the punishment of the gods?
- About the Poet
- Ukon was a lady-in-waiting who served Empress Onshi, consort of Emperor Daigo. Her name, "Ukon," derives from her father's office as Minor Captain of the Right Palace Guards. The Yamato Monogatari describes her falling in love with a number of different men, revealing her as a woman with many romances.
- Ukon'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)
Only the promise we made
still lives on in my heart.The more I wish for your happiness,
the more painful this ending becomes.
- 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).