On a summer day
that is slow to fall to dusk,
as I gaze all day,
without any single cause
all things grow sad to me.
- Meaning
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On a long summer day that is slow to fade into evening, as I sit gazing in thought, everything feels sorrowful, though there is no single cause.
- Commentary
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Episode Forty-Five: "The firefly going forth"
A daughter of a person of some rank, carefully brought up, had long wished to speak intimately with a certain man. Unable to give voice to her feelings, she fell ill and died before he could come to her, though he hurried when he heard of her condition.
He went into mourning, and toward the end of the Sixth Month, on very hot days, music was played at night in remembrance of her. As the night deepened and a slight cool wind began to blow, he composed the poem about the firefly, and then this one.
In this poem is expressed the man’s sense of loss at having failed to see the young woman at the moment of her death, though she had cherished him so deeply. As he passes the long summer day in thought, all things seem suffused with sorrow.
- Source
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Ise Monogatari
- Other
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