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Japanese
English
Audio: NHK Creative Library
Read by LibriVox volunteer Larry Wilson.
Audio courtesy of LibriVox (Public Domain).
大弐三位
ありま山
猪名の笹原
風吹けば
いでそよ人を
忘れやはする
いてそよひ
とをわすれ
やはする
ありま
- Poem 58
- ありま山
猪名の笹原
風吹けば
いでそよ人を 忘れやはする
Author: Daini no Sanmi (999–death year unknown)
Source: Go Shūi Wakashū, Love
- English Verse Translation
- As fickle as the mountain gusts That on the moor I've met, 'Twere best to think no more of
thee, And let thee go. But yet I never can forget.
— William N. Porter, 1909
- Modern Translation
- When the wind blows through the bamboo groves of Arima and Ina — of course I have not forgotten you.
- Commentary
- This poem was written in reply to a letter from a man who, after a long silence, wrote asking whether her feelings toward him had changed.
- About the Poet
- Daini no Sanmi, Kenshi, was the daughter of Murasaki Shikibu, and like her mother, served Empress Shōshi, consort of Emperor Ichijō. She later became wet nurse to the future Emperor Go-Reizei, and when he ascended the throne, she rose to Junior Third Rank, joining the ranks of the court nobility. Her name, "Daini no Sanmi," derives from the office of her second husband, Takashina no Nariakira, whom she married in her mid-thirties — he served as Deputy Governor-General of Dazaifu (Dazai no Daini) — combined with her own rank of Junior Third Rank (Sanmi).
- Daini no Sanmi'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)
"Have you forgotten me?" you ask —
and I can't help but smile.However the wind blows, however the seasons turn,
my feelings for you will never change.
- 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).