Hyakunin Isshu Oracle

No.44 中納言朝忠(藤原朝忠)「逢ふことの 絶えてしなくば なかなかに 人をも身をも 恨みざらまし」

逢ふことの 絶えてしなくば なかなかに 人をも身をも 恨みざらまし

中納言朝忠(藤原朝忠)

had we never met at all there would be no one to blame

had we never met at all there would be no one to blame

キーワードKeywords

If We Had Never MetResentmentCounterfactualSelf-BlameBetter Never
Love

中納言朝忠(藤原朝忠)Fujiwara no Asatada — No. 44 公卿Court Noble

A noble known as a flautist, who left poems that argue coolly about the logic of love.

あふことの たえてしなくば なかなかに ひとをもみをも うらみざらまし

Au koto no Taete shi nakuba Nakanaka ni Hito o mo mi o mo Urami zaramashi

現代語訳Modern Japanese

コンセプトConcept

情景The Scene

He runs the alternative timeline: no meeting, no promises, nobody to resent — including himself. It would have been easier. He states it as a calculation, not a wish.

日本の美意識Japanese Aesthetic

Mono no Aware (Irreversible Moment)

The poem measures the present against a version of life that no longer exists. Counterfactuals are a precise tool for weight: name what is now impossible and the cost becomes concrete.