Hyakunin Isshu #45

[lnhammer]

    I don't think there is
anyone so moved they must
    call me "pitiful" --
it surely must be pointless
for me to continue on.

— 10-18 March 2010

Original by Fujiwara no Koretada (or Koremasa), grandson of Tadahira (#26) and father of Yoshitaka (#50), being rather a drip about the end of an affair. Or maybe the phrase I'm looking for is "wangsting". Frankly, I can't seem to make this into anything resembling a good poem. Also, I'm at a loss to explain what, grammatically, is going on with ni in line 4 (direction of becoming or adverbial marker?); commentaries explain that itazura ni naru ("become useless"?) was a poetic cliche for "to die of disappointed love," which only partially helps.


aware to mo
iu beki hito wa
omooede
mi no itazura ni
narinu beki kana

---L.