Kokinshu #373

Written and sent to someone who'd gone to the eastern provinces.

    Although I long to
I cannot split my body --
    so I shall send you
as a companion a heart
that can't be seen with the eye.

—14 March 2013

Original by Ikago no Atsuyuki, who is otherwise unknown aside from this one poem in the Kokinshu. ¶ The recipient had gone to Azuma, a general name for the eastern half of Honshu, everything from what's now the Tokyo metro area on north. What is longed for is unstated -- the traditional interpretation is "to go with you," but this reading feels more natural to me. The original plays on the homophone mi meaning both "body/self" and "eye" -- similar to the soundplay of "I" / "eye," though I don't see a way to bring that out as pointedly. Not bad, but the conceit was more charming in #368, when a mother sent her heart.


omoedomo
mi o shi wakeneba
mi ni mienu
kokoro o kimi ni
taguete zo yaru

---L.