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Audio: NHK Creative Library
Read by LibriVox volunteer Larry Wilson.
Audio courtesy of LibriVox (Public Domain).
藤原清輔朝臣
長らへば
またこのごろや
しのばれむ
憂しと見し世ぞ
今は恋しき
うしとみし
よそいまは
こひしき
ながら
- Poem 84
- 長らへば
またこのごろや
しのばれむ
憂しと見し世ぞ 今は恋しき
Author: Fujiwara no Kiyosuke Ason (1104–1177)
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashū, Miscellaneous
- English Verse Translation
- Time was when I despised my youth, As boyhood only can; What would I give for boyhood now,
When finishing life's span An old decrepid man!
— William N. Porter, 1909
- Modern Translation
- If I live on long enough, perhaps even these painful days will become dear to me, as something I once longed to leave behind.
- Commentary
- According to the headnote in the Kiyosuke Shū, this poem was "sent when the Sanjō Minister of the Center was still a Middle Captain." The Sanjō Minister of the Center is said to refer to Fujiwara no Kinnori. One theory holds that Kiyosuke composed this poem to encourage Kinnori, who had remained stuck in the rank of Middle Captain for many years without advancement.
- About the Poet
- Fujiwara no Kiyosuke was the son of the Master of the Left Capital Akisuke (Poem 79), compiler of the Shika Wakashū. Because of tension between father and son, however, not a single one of Kiyosuke's poems was included in that anthology. Later, Kiyosuke was honored with the task of compiling the Shoku Shika Wakashū by order of Emperor Nijō, but Emperor Nijō died just before it could be presented, and the collection sadly never saw the light of day.
- Fujiwara no Kiyosuke 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)
However hard things are now,
a day will come when I can look back and smile.Even sorrow, with the passing of time,
turns into a fond memory.
- 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).