Front
Back
Japanese
English
Audio: NHK Creative Library
Read by LibriVox volunteer Larry Wilson.
Audio courtesy of LibriVox (Public Domain).
権中納言敦忠
逢ひ見ての
のちの心に
くらぶれば
昔は物を
思はざりけり
むかしはも
のをおもは
さりけり
あい
- Poem 43
- 逢ひ見ての
のちの心に
くらぶれば
昔は物を 思はざりけり
Author: Acting Middle Counselor Atsutada (906–943)
Source: Shūi Wakashū, Love
- English Verse Translation
- How desolate my former life, Those dismal years, ere yet I chanced to see thee face to face
'Twere better to forget Those days before we met.
— William N. Porter, 1909
- Modern Translation
- Compared to this feeling after meeting you, the longing I felt before seems like nothing at all.
- Commentary
- According to the headnote in the Shūishō, this poem was sent the morning after the poet first spent the night with a woman — a so-called kinuginu no uta, a "morning-after poem." Fujiwara no Atsutada is known to have had a romance with Ukon (Poem 38), but as he was involved with many women over his lifetime, it is not certain who exactly this particular poem was addressed to.
- About the Poet
- Fujiwara no Atsutada was born the third son of Minister of the Left Fujiwara no Tokihira, and was gifted at both poetry and the biwa, but died of illness at the young age of thirty-eight. His sudden death brought great grief to those around him. Because his father, Tokihira, had brought about the downfall of Sugawara no Michizane, rumors spread that Michizane's vengeful spirit had cursed Atsutada in turn.
- Acting Middle Counselor Atsutada'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 finally seen you again —
and this racing heart is even bigger
than the longing I felt before.The pain of longing before we met —
looking back, maybe that wasn't even love.
- 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).