Upon the straw mat spread,
Laying down one sleeve of mine—
Shall it be tonight
That, without meeting the one
I long for, I sleep alone?
- Meaning
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Spreading a straw mat and laying down one sleeve of my robe, must I again tonight sleep alone without meeting the one I long for?
- Commentary
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63. Tsukumo Hair
There was a woman who longed for a certain man. She wished that she might somehow meet this man, who was said to be deep in affection, yet she had no opportunity to speak of such a thing. So she called her three sons and spoke to them about a dream she had seen. The first two answered indifferently, but the third son interpreted the dream, saying, "Surely a good man will appear for you." Their mother was greatly pleased.
The third son thought that other men lacked deep feeling. Because the man known as the Zaigo Middle Captain was reputed to be affectionate, he wished to arrange for his mother to meet him. Encountering the Zaigo Middle Captain while he was out hunting, the son conveyed his feelings. The captain was moved and came to the woman’s house, where they lay together.
After that the man did not come again, and the woman went to his house and secretly looked in. The man noticed the woman peering in and prepared to go out. Seeing that he was leaving, the woman hurried back to her own house, catching herself on thorns along the way, and lay down. Then, just as she had done earlier, the man came and secretly looked in so that she would not notice.
The poem was composed by the woman as she tried to sleep in sorrow.
Hearing the poem, the man felt pity and that night lay with the woman. In ordinary relationships, people tend to love the one who loves them and ignore those who do not; yet the man in this episode—Ariwara no Narihira, known as the Zaigo Middle Captain—kept company with women without distinguishing whether he especially liked them or not.
Though the man is portrayed as a sincere and refined lover admired by women, the degree of it can feel somewhat excessive and even comical.
This poem resembles one recorded in the "Kokin Wakashū" (Love, Book Four) as a poem by an unknown poet.
- Source
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Ise Monogatari
- Other
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Is it truly this—
The one who fled from meeting me
As wife long ago,
Though years have passed since that time,
Showing no sign of better?
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Her tresses ninety-nine—
One year short of a hundred,
All in tangled white—
She must still long after me,
For I see her in a dream.
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Were I but the wind
Blowing where it will, myself,
Then through jeweled blinds
Seeking out a narrow gap,
I might enter where you dwell.
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Though it be the wind,
Elusive and hard to hold,
Even through jeweled blinds—
Unless one grants leave to it,
How could it seek out a gap?