In autumn fields,
my sleeves, parting the bamboo grass
at break of day—
yet more than that dew-wetness
are the nights I lie without you.
- Meaning
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More than my sleeves, wet with dew as I part the bamboo grass in autumn fields at dawn, are the nights I lie without meeting you drenched in tears.
- Commentary
-
Episode Twenty-Five: "In autumn fields"
There was a woman who neither said she would meet nor that she would not meet, but only teased the man with no clear reply, and for that very reason she was all the more alluring. The man sent her this poem.
This poem is also included in the Kokinshū as a poem by Ariwara no Narihira.
- Source
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Ise Monogatari
- Other
-
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Azusa bow—
whether you draw it or not,
from long ago
my heart has leaned toward you
and never turned away.
-
Loving still,
I could not detain
the one who left,
not loving me the same—
and now my life has faded away.
-
Knowing not, perhaps,
that I am like a shore
where no miru grows,
the fisherman, not weary,
drags his feet and comes.
-
Unaware, somehow,
at my sleeves the harbor
is all in tumult;
only because a great
Chinese ship has drawn near.