Nezame shite hisashiku narinu aki no yo wa ake ya shinuran shika zo naku naru

English Translation

Since I woke from sleep
a long while now has gone by—
this long autumn night,
has it at last turned to dawn?
I hear the deer calling out

Meaning

A long time has passed since I woke in the night; has the autumn night finally given way to dawn? I hear the deer crying.

Commentary

Book Five Autumn Poems II 447

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the eleventh poem of the deer sequence. Long after waking in the night, the speaker hears the deer and wonders whether the autumn night has ended. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author was a mid-Heian poet who served as governor of Chikuzen among other posts and is one of the Thirty-six Poetic Immortals of the Middle Ages.
The scene is near daybreak at the end of a long autumn night, in a bedchamber.
The direct occasion is not recorded.

The first line, "nezame shite," means "having woken in the night," taking up "waking" in 445.
In the second line, the perfective "nu" says that a long time has passed since waking, showing how long the speaker has lain sleepless.
The third line sets the subject of the second half, with the long autumn night in mind.
In the fourth line, the interrogative "ya" is inserted after "ake" and resumed by "shi," the continuative of the verb "su"; "nu" is perfective, and "ran," the attributive of the conjectural "ramu," is bound to "ya."
In the last line, "naru" is the attributive of "nari," the auxiliary of inference from sound, resolving "zo." The deer's cry, heard after a long wakefulness, is taken as a sign that dawn is near. Whereas 438 surmises that the night has grown late, this poem surmises the dawn, so the two form a pair that read the hour from the deer's voice. "Nezame shite" is used again in 449, shaping the group of waking poems.

Author

Minamoto no Michinari

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other