Kokinshu #378

[lnhammer]

Written when left behind by a beloved friend traveling to the eastern provinces.

    Even if you are
among the far-distant clouds,
    this traveling heart
is not left behind -- and so
we only seem separated.

—5 April 2013

Original by Fujiwara no Fukayabu. Back to male friends parting, this time in more private modes -- the "beloved friend" part indicating that this is a more private affair than the official sendings off of previous poems. Compare #367. Omitted-but-understood words: "if you are." The verb for "traveling" in the poem implies going back and forth (the modern sense is "commuting"), giving an implied image of being used as a messenger, which doesn't quite fit the context. (Grammar issue: I do not understand what's going on in the final verb, which has inflections my grammar books say shouldn't go together -- I translate it as if it were muyubekarunari, with a -nari of assertion, but I'm not confident enough of this reading to actually emend the text.) (oops)


kumoi ni mo
kayou kokoro no
okureneba
wakaru to hito ni
muyubakarinari

---L.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Hm, are you sure your source isn't corrupt? I just checked the Iwanami Bunko text, and they have "みゆばかりなり", which is the same sort of structure as something modern like "mieru dake desu". --Matt

[lnhammer]

*facepalm*

Not my source -- my transcription. Shoulda thought to double-check.

---L.