Practise the thinking. Keep the judgement.
君がため
Fujiwara no Yoshitaka · 藤原義孝
君がため
惜しからざりし
命さへ
長くもがなと
思ひけるかな
Historical kana
きみがため
をしからざりし
いのちさへ
ながくもがなと
おもひけるかな
Original English translation
Even the life I once would not have spared for you—I now wish it could last a long time.
History and context
Yoshitaka’s poem is placed among the Goshuishū’s love poems. Its movement from willingness to die to a wish to live unsettles the familiar rhetoric of sacrificing everything for love.
Imagery and wordplay
An encounter changes the meaning of life. The same devotion produces a new wish for duration.
Goshuishū · 後拾遺集恋二669
Japanese text and historical kana follow the linked Wikisource transcription. Classical poems can have variant spellings and wording in different anthologies. The source anthology reference identifies the version represented in this collection, not necessarily its earliest surviving text. English prose translations and reading notes are original interpretations; some wordplay permits more than one reading.