Front of the Card
Back of the Card
Japanese
English
Audio: NHK Creative Library
Read by LibriVox volunteer Larry Wilson.
Audio courtesy of LibriVox
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
- Written for the Tentoku palace poetry contest (960) on the theme "love not yet met," it was evenly matched with Taira no Kanemori's poem, but lost because Emperor Murakami was heard reciting Kanemori's. A tale in the Shasekishū says Tadami was so crushed that he stopped eating, fell ill, and died.
- About the Poet
- Mibu no Tadami was the son of Mibu no Tadamine and a low-ranking official under Emperor Murakami. He inherited his father's gift and wrote fine poems from childhood. Called to the palace, he worked in the imperial kitchen office and later became an official of Settsu Province.
- 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).
- Mibu no Tadami: A Short Timeline
-
- 953
- Takes part in the Palace Chrysanthemum Contest
- 954
- Becomes a cook in the palace kitchen office
- 956
- Takes part in poetry contests, including one held by Princess Shōshi, consort of the Reikeiden
- 958
- Becomes a senior secretary of Settsu Province
- 960
- Competes against Taira no Kanemori at the Palace Poetry Contest of the Tentoku Era
- Notes
-
- 36 of his poems appear in imperial anthologies from the Gosenshū on
- Counted as one of the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets
- Mibu no Tadami's Family Tree
-
At the Palace Poetry Contest of 960 (the 4th year of Tentoku), Mibu no Tadami competed against Taira no Kanemori and lost, but both poems were fine and it is said to have been a close match.
Tadami was the son of Mibu no Tadamine, one of the compilers of the Kokin Wakashū. Both father and son were chosen for the Hyakunin Isshu.