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Japanese
English
Audio: NHK Creative Library
Read by LibriVox volunteer Larry Wilson.
Audio courtesy of LibriVox (Public Domain).
式子内親王
玉の緒よ
絶えなば絶えね
ながらへば
忍ぶることの
弱りもぞする
しのふるこ
とのよわり
もそする
たま
- Poem 89
- 玉の緒よ
絶えなば絶えね
ながらへば
忍ぶることの 弱りもぞする
Author: Princess Shikishi (1149–1201)
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashū, Love
- English Verse Translation
- The ailments of advancing years Though I should try to hide, Some day the thread will
break, the pearls Be scattered far and wide; Age cannot be defied.
— William N. Porter, 1909
- Modern Translation
- Let my life end now, if it must. For if I go on living, my power to endure this secret love may weaken.
- Commentary
- The headnote in the Shin Kokin Wakashū reads, "on hidden love, from a hundred-poem sequence." Though this was a poem on an assigned topic, Princess Shikishi had served as Kamo Virgin, dedicated in service to the gods — a position that forbade her from loving openly. Written against the backdrop of her own life, the theme of "hidden love" gives the poem a genuine and compelling weight.
- About the Poet
- Princess Shikishi was the third daughter of Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa, and served as Kamo Virgin from her teens until her early twenties, a role that denied her the freedom to love throughout her life. After stepping down from that post, she lost family members one after another, watched her father placed under political house arrest by Taira no Kiyomori, and was even herself accused of practicing curses — a life marked by turmoil. And yet she composed many beautiful poems, and the Shin Kokin Wakashū includes forty-nine of her works, more than any other woman poet in the anthology.
- Princess Shikishi'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)
This feeling of mine
must never be known to anyone.I don't care if my life should end —
only don't let me lose this heart that longs for you.
- 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).