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
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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
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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
- Prev Poem
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Kimi komu to iishi yo goto ni suginureba
tanomanu mono no koitsutsu zo furu - Next Poem
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Azusayumi mayumi tsukiyumi toshi o hete
waga seshi ga goto uruwashimi seyo