花の色は
うつりにけりな
いたづらに
わが身世にふる
ながめせしまに
Translation-
The color of flowers
has faded indeed
in vain
have I passed through the world
while gazing at the falling rains.
Comments-
The poetess of this poem is (finally a woman) one of the most celebrated women from Japan. She is one of the Six Poetry Immortals! She was considered to be breath-takingly gorgeous, and her poetry would put everybody under a spell.
There are a lot of literature pieces out there narrating her good looks and her cruelty to men. In one famous story, she promised to love a certain suitor if he visited her 100 nights in a row. He completed 99 visits, but failed one night to visit her, and was so distraught that he fell ill and died.
The major theme highlighted in this poem is the fear of getting old and losing one's youthful looks. For someone who was beautiful as Ono no Komachi (the poetess), the loss may have been even more distressing. There's also word play in this poem which often changes the interpretation of the last line from 'while gazing at the falling rains' to 'gazing while lost in thought.'
Even though its a beautiful poem, but I feel a little disappointed in poetess. I was excited to listen to a poetess after a long queue of poets, but the poem again turned out to be about her looks. I was expecting something deeper than that. But it's alright. The woman killed many by her looks, it must have caused her a lot of struggle too. Because everything comes at a price.
This poem also serves as a narrow opening to her well-shielded insecurities. No matter how good-looking one is, we are all aware that looks will be lost in no time, and will there still be anyone wanting to be at my side? That is the real question.
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Hyakunin Isshu
Poetry100 poems by 100 poets. Classical Japanese anthology of one hundred Japanese waka (short poems) by one hundred poets. Hyakunin isshu can be translated to "one hundred people, one poem (each)." These poems hold a special meaning to me, and so I dec...
