草枕塵はらひにはからころも
たもとゆたかに裁つを待てかし
たもとゆたかに裁つを待てかし
- Roma-ji
-
Kusamakura chiri harai ni wa karakoromo tamoto yutaka ni tatsu o mate kashi
- English Translation
-
To sweep the dust from
that grass pillow — wait until
I have had a robe
cut in the Chinese fashion
with sleeves ample enough for it
- Meaning
- To sweep the dust from that grass pillow, wait until I have had a robe cut in the Chinese fashion, with sleeves ample enough for the work.
- Commentary
-
140 Dust on the Grass Pillow
While the late Prince of the Ministry of Military Affairs was visiting the daughter of the Major Counsellor Noboru, he once had a temporary bed made up in the aisle room rather than in the usual place, and spent a night there and went home. He did not come again for some time, and then sent to ask whether the bed laid in the aisle room was still there or had been put away; and her answer was "Shikikaezu arishi nagara ni kusamakura chiri nomi zo iru harau hito nami". His reply was "Kusamakura chiri harai ni wa karakoromo tamoto yutaka ni tatsu o mate kashi", and she answered again with "Karakoromo tatsu o matsu ma no hodo koso wa waga shikitae no chiri mo tsumorame", at which he came to her. On another occasion, when he sent word that he was going hunting at Uji, her answer was "Mikari suru Kurikomayama no shika yori mo hitori nuru mi zo wabishikarikeru". That is the whole of the section.
The Prince of the Ministry of Military Affairs appears in the ninetieth, hundred and sixth, hundred and seventh, hundred and thirty-seventh and hundred and thirty-ninth sections. The Major Counsellor Noboru is Minamoto no Noboru, who held that office; the poet is his daughter. The aisle room ran around the outside of the main hall.
The setting is the moment her answer reached him.
What prompted it is hers, "Shikikaezu arishi nagara ni kusamakura chiri nomi zo iru harau hito nami", with its complaint that no one sweeps.
She answered again, and it was that second reply which finally brought him.
He opens from her own grass pillow, starting the poem where hers left off — a properly matched reply.
What follows takes up the sweeping of the dust, answering her complaint by proposing the means.
A robe cut in the Chinese fashion with ample sleeves rests on the notion of brushing dust away with one's sleeve; the verb is that of cutting cloth to make a garment.
The closing is an imperative with a particle that presses it home: wait. He promises no visit and tells her to wait until a robe is made — inventing a fresh reason for not coming, which is what her reply will fasten on.
- Source
- Yamato Monogatari
- Other
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- The white snow that falls on the pine — on my waiting — for one who will not come, melts clean away in the fire of a love unanswered
- Not laid again, still as it was on that night, the grass pillow: nothing settles on it now but dust for there is no one to sweep
- In the very while that I am waiting for your robe to be cut out the dust on the bedding I have spread will go on gathering
- More wretched even than the deer of Kurikoma where the hunt goes out is this body of mine, that lies down to sleep by itself