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Audio: NHK Creative Library
Read by LibriVox volunteer Larry Wilson.
Audio courtesy of LibriVox (Public Domain).
藤原実方朝臣
かくとだに
えやはいぶきの
さしも草
さしも知らじな
もゆる思ひを
さしもしら
しなもゆる
おもひを
かく
- Poem 51
- かくとだに
えやはいぶきの
さしも草
さしも知らじな もゆる思ひを
Author: Fujiwara no Sanekata Ason (dates unknown–998)
Source: Go Shūi Wakashū, Love
- English Verse Translation
- Though love, like blisters made from leaves Grown on Mount Ibuki, Torments me more than
I can say, My lady shall not see, How she is paining me.
— William N. Porter, 1909
- Modern Translation
- I cannot even tell you how I feel — like the smoldering fire of ibuki wormwood, my hidden love quietly burns.
- Commentary
- The headnote in the Go Shūi Wakashū reads, "Sent upon returning home from a woman's residence on a day when snow was falling." One theory holds that this poem was sent to Sei Shōnagon.
- About the Poet
- Fujiwara no Sanekata was a great-grandson of Teishin-kō (Poem 26), born into an illustrious family descended from the regental line, and much was expected of his future. However, after a quarrel with Fujiwara no Yukinari at court that led him to fling Yukinari's ceremonial hat to the ground, he incurred the anger of Emperor Ichijō. As a result, he was ordered to "go see the famous poetic places for yourself" and was demoted to a post in Mutsu Province. This anecdote is recorded in the Kojidan, and has come down to us as an episode symbolizing his turbulent life.
- Fujiwara no Sanekata Ason'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 can't even bring myself
to say plainly that I love you.This unspoken love of mine
keeps quietly burning in my chest, even now.
- 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).