あらたまの年の三年を待ちわびて
ただ今宵こそ新枕すれ
ただ今宵こそ新枕すれ
- Roma-ji
-
Aratama no toshi no mitose o machiwabite
tada koyoi koso niimakura sure - English Translation
-
Through three full years
of the new-turning year
I have waited in vain;
only this very night
shall I take a new pillow.
- Meaning
- After waiting in vain through three long years, this very night I shall take a new pillow with another.
- Commentary
-
Episode Twenty-Four: "Of the new-turning year"
A man lived in a remote countryside. In order to serve at court, he left the woman and went away.
For three full years he did not visit her even once. Wearied of waiting, the woman had promised a man who had earnestly courted her that "tonight we shall be together." On that very day, the man who had left returned.
When the returned man said, "Open this door," the woman answered him with this poem.
Is it resentment at having been made to wait three years, or bewilderment at the man whom she had thought already forgotten?
"New pillow" refers to a man and woman spending the night together for the first time.
- Source
- Ise Monogatari
- Other
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- Toward where you are I shall sit and gaze— O Mount Ikoma, let not the clouds conceal you, though even if rain should fall.
- Each night you said that you would surely come has passed in vain; though I no longer rely on it, still do I live on longing.
- Azusa bow, true-bow, and zelkova bow— through passing years, love him with fair devotion as once you did with me.
- Azusa bow— whether you draw it or not, from long ago my heart has leaned toward you and never turned away.