Akenu tote isogi mo zo suru Ōsaka no kiri tachinu tomo hito ni kikasu na

English Translation

He may hurry off
saying the night has ended —
so even though the
mist has risen at Ōsaka
do not let him hear of it

Meaning

He may hurry off, saying the night is over. So even though the mist has risen at Ōsaka, do not let him hear of it.

Commentary

89 The Icefish at the Weir

While a man who held the post of Master of the Right Horse Bureau was visiting a woman known as the Lady of Shuri, he sent word that the direction was closed to him and he could not come, and she composed "Kore naranu koto o mo ōku tagaureba uramimu kata mo naki zo wabishiki". Later, when he had stopped coming altogether, she composed "Ikade nao ajiro no hio ni koto towamu nani ni yorite ka ware o towanu to", and his reply was "Ajiro yori hoka ni wa hio no yoru mono ka shirazu wa Uji no hito ni toe kashi". From the days when he was still visiting there is a poem she made at an early morning parting, "Akenu tote isogi mo zo suru Ōsaka no kiri tachinu tomo hito ni kikasu na", and one he made when he first began coming, "Ikani shite ware wa kienamu shiratsuyu no kaerite nochi no mono wa omowaji"; her reply to it was "Kakiho naru kimi ga asagao mite shi kana kaerite nochi wa mono ya omou to". After a night together, on going home, he composed "Kokoro o shi kimi ni todomete kinishikaba mono omou koto wa ware ni ya aruramu", and the Lady of Shuri answered with "Tamashii wa okashiki koto mo nakarikeri yorozu no mono wa kara ni zo arikeru". That is the whole of the section.
The Lady of Shuri takes her name from that office. The Master of the Right Horse Bureau headed the office responsible for horses. This section holds eight poems and is not arranged in order of time: the poems from after his visits ceased come first, and the section then turns back to the days when he was still coming.
The setting is the days when he was still visiting, at an early morning parting.
What prompted the poem was the coming of daybreak.
From here the section goes back further still, to the poems of when he first began visiting. It is not arranged in order of time.

The opening fears that he may hurry away at word of daybreak; the grammar is that of apprehension — that this should happen would be bad.
Ōsaka is the pass between Yamashiro and Ōmi; its name contains the word for meeting, and it had long been associated in poetry with lovers' meetings.
The word for mist in the fourth line carries the sound of the verb for cutting, so that mist rising and a bond being severed are held together.
The closing is a prohibition: do not let him hear. Whom she forbids is not stated; it may be whatever announces the dawn. The whole poem narrows to one thing — that he should not be told what time it is.

Source

Yamato Monogatari

Other