Night after night now
I shall lie on the one sleeve
of my traveling robe—
and thinking of it, I see
how far I am going off
- Meaning
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Night after night I shall lie on the single sleeve of my traveling robe; and thinking of it, I see how far away I am going.
- Commentary
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Volume Seven: Tsunemasa Leaves the Capital
This is Tsunemasa's answer to Gyōkei, and the last of the chapter's four poems.
Having spoken it he took his leave, went out through the gate, joined the retainers waiting there, and rode after the house going west. The lute Seizan stayed in the residence, and he never came back to it.
To lay down one sleeve is to sleep alone: lovers spread each other's sleeves beneath them, so the single sleeve is enough to say that no one is there. The phrase belongs mostly to love poetry.
Tsunemasa applies it to a man riding to war. Sleeping alone, with no one on the other side, is what every night will now be. Yona yona carries the repetition.
The lower verse—"how far I am going"—means distance and also means not coming back. Gyōkei's poem had just foretold his death in saying that no blossom would remain; Tsunemasa does not name his death but substitutes a journey. He accepts the prediction and keeps his own words to travel.
Read as a set, the four poems run: the abbot wraps up what remains; Tsunemasa names what does not change; Gyōkei names the falling blossom; Tsunemasa names the distance. Around the single act of returning a lute, the one who stays and the one who goes each speak twice, and the parting is finished there.
tabigoromo……a robe worn on a journey.
yona yona……night after night.
sode wo katashiku……to lie on one's own sleeve alone.
omoeba……when I consider it.
tōku yukinan……I shall go far away.
Omuro……the abbot of Ninna-ji.
Seizan……the famous Chinese lute.
Ichi-no-tani……the place in Settsu where Tsunemasa was killed.
- Source
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Heike Monogatari
- Other
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