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Audio: NHK Creative Library
Read by LibriVox volunteer Larry Wilson.
Audio courtesy of LibriVox (Public Domain).
相模
恨みわび
ほさぬ袖だに
あるものを
恋にくちなむ
名こそをしけれ
こひにくち
なむなこそ
をしけれ
うら
- Poem 65
- 恨みわび
ほさぬ袖だに
あるものを
恋にくちなむ 名こそをしけれ
Author: Sagami (dates unknown)
Source: Go Shūi Wakashū, Love
- English Verse Translation
- Be not displeased, but pardon me, If still my tears o'erflow; My lover's gone, and my good
name, Which once I valued so, I fear must also go.
— William N. Porter, 1909
- Modern Translation
- My sleeves are never dry — and I grieve not for myself, but that my name as a lover will be ruined before it is known.
- Commentary
- This poem was composed for the "love" round of the Poetry Contest at the Palace in Eishō 6 (1051), and won. It laments the sorrow of a woman who, having fallen for an unfeeling man, suffers not only heartbreak but also the ruin of her reputation through gossip.
- About the Poet
- Sagami's name comes from her marriage to Ōe no Kinyori, who once held the post of Governor of Sagami, though the two later separated. Afterward, she served Princess Shūshi, a daughter of Emperor Ichijō, and led a famously unrestrained romantic life. Highly regarded as a poet, she has forty poems included in the Go Shūi Wakashū. Her father was Minamoto no Yorimitsu, said in legend to have slain the demon Shuten-dōji at Mount Ōe.
- Sagami'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)
Even the strength to resent you
has washed away with my tears.All that's left is a heart wounded by love,
and a name that is quietly fading.
- 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).