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Audio: NHK Creative Library
Read by LibriVox volunteer Larry Wilson.
Audio courtesy of LibriVox (Public Domain).
壬生忠見
恋すてふ
我が名はまだき
立ちにけり
人しれずこそ
思ひそめしか
ひとしれす
こそおもひ
そめしか
こい
- Poem 41
- 恋すてふ
我が名はまだき
立ちにけり
人しれずこそ 思ひそめしか
Author: Mibu no Tadami (dates unknown)
Source: Shūi Wakashū, Love
- English Verse Translation
- Our courtship, that we tried to hide, Misleading is to none; And yet how could the neighbours guess,
That I had yet begun To fancy any one?
— William N. Porter, 1909
- Modern Translation
- They say my name as a lover is already known far and wide, even before the affair began. I had kept it so quietly in my heart.
- Commentary
- This poem was composed for the "Tentoku Poetry Contest at the Imperial Palace," on the set theme of "love not yet met." It was an evenly matched contest against a poem by Taira no Kanemori. In the end, though, Tadami lost narrowly — reportedly because Emperor Murakami was overheard humming Kanemori's line "shinoburedo…" According to an anecdote recorded in the Shasekishū, Tadami was so devastated by the loss that he could no longer eat, fell ill, and died.
- About the Poet
- Mibu no Tadami was the son of Mibu no Tadamine (Poem 30). He served Emperor Murakami as a low-ranking court official. He inherited his father's poetic gift, showing talent for poetry from a young age; he was summoned to serve at the palace, working in the Mizushidokoro (imperial kitchen office), and later became Junior Secretary of Settsu Province.
- Mibu no Tadami'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)
I've only just begun to think of you —
I haven't told a soul.And yet this small, quiet love
has already spread like word on the wind.
- 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).