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Audio: NHK Creative Library
Read by LibriVox volunteer Larry Wilson.
Audio courtesy of LibriVox (Public Domain).
源重之
風をいたみ
岩うつ波の
おのれのみ
くだけて物を
思ふころかな
くたけても
のをおもふ
ころかな
かぜを
- Poem 48
- 風をいたみ
岩うつ波の
おのれのみ
くだけて物を 思ふころかな
Author: Minamoto no Shigeyuki (dates unknown)
Source: Shika Wakashū, Love
- English Verse Translation
- The waves that dash against the rocks Are broken by the wind And turned to spray; my loving
heart Is broken too, I find, Since thou art so unkind.
— William N. Porter, 1909
- Modern Translation
- Like the waves crashing against the rocks in the fierce wind, I alone am broken to pieces by this sorrow.
- Commentary
- The poem likens the person he loves to an unmoving rock, and himself, the one in love, to the waves that shatter against it. However fiercely he tries to convey his feelings, they never reach her — and this poignant ache is expressed dramatically through the image of a stormy sea.
- About the Poet
- Minamoto no Shigeyuki was a great-grandson of Emperor Seiwa. He composed poetry while serving in a series of provincial posts. He presented a hundred-poem sequence, the Shigeyuki Hyakushu, to the future Emperor Reizei while he was still crown prince — considered the oldest surviving example of this poetic form. He was also friendly with Sone no Yoshitada (Poem 46), who likewise composed hundred-poem sequences, and with Fujiwara no Sanekata (Poem 51), whom he accompanied when Sanekata was posted to Mutsu Province.
- Minamoto no Shigeyuki'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 sound of the raging waves
knows the ache in my chest.You remain unchanged, right there —
while I, today again, quietly break my heart alone.
- 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).