At a dawn like this,
when the plovers with their friends
cry all in one voice,
even a bed where I wake
alone seems something to trust

Meaning

At a dawn when the plovers cry together with their fellows, even this bed where I wake alone feels like something to lean on.

Commentary

Part One: Suma

　Lying awake again toward dawn, he heard plovers calling with a sound that went through him. No one else was up, and he murmured the poem over to himself where he lay. Watching him rise while it was still dark to wash and say his prayers, the men with him found it rare and moving and could hardly bear to leave his side.

　"Tomo chidori" are plovers in a flock. "Morogoe" is voices together, several birds crying at once. "A bed where one wakes alone" states his solitude plainly. A solitary man drawing strength from the cries of birds that keep together is the paradox on which it turns, and the poem is among the best known from the winter scenes at Suma.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

At a dawn like this, when the plovers with their friends cry all in one voice, even a bed where I wake alone seems something to trust

At a dawn like this,
when the plovers with their friends
cry all in one voice,
even a bed where I wake
alone seems something to trust