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Audio: NHK Creative Library
Read by LibriVox volunteer Larry Wilson.
Audio courtesy of LibriVox (Public Domain).
参議等
浅茅生の
小野の篠原
しのぶれど
あまりてなどか
人の恋しき
あまりてな
とかひとの
こひしき
あさじ
- Poem 39
- 浅茅生の
小野の篠原
しのぶれど
あまりてなどか 人の恋しき
Author: Councillor Hitoshi (880–951)
Source: Gosen Wakashū, Love
- English Verse Translation
- 'Tis easier to hide the reeds Upon the moor that grow, Than try to hide the ardent love
That sets my cheeks aglow For somebody I know.
— William N. Porter, 1909
- Modern Translation
- Though I try to hide it, my longing spills over. Why is it that I cannot stop thinking of that person?
- Commentary
- This poem was composed with an unrequited love in mind, expressing feelings too strong to keep hidden. "Asajiu no ono no shinohara" (the sparse bamboo grass of the moor) serves as a preface leading into the word "shinobu" (to endure / hide). Some argue that "asajiu" and "shinohara" carry no meaning of their own beyond that wordplay, while others read the desolate landscape as mirroring the painful effort of concealing love.
- About the Poet
- Councillor Hitoshi was a great-grandson of Emperor Saga, but was removed from the imperial family and took the name Minamoto no Hitoshi. He served in a series of provincial posts — Governor of Mikawa, Governor of Tanba, Deputy Governor of Mino, and Governor of Bizen — before finally rising to Councillor and joining the ranks of the court nobility.
- Councillor Hitoshi'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)
Alone, I stand
where the wind sweeps through the bamboo grass.The more I try to hold it back,
the more this longing fills 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).