ほしもあへぬ衣の闇にくらされて
月ともいはずまどひぬるかな
月ともいはずまどひぬるかな
- Roma-ji
-
Hoshi mo aenu koromo no yami ni kurasarete tsuki to mo iwazu madoinuru kana
- English Translation
-
Sleeves never dried,
in the darkness of my robes
I am made blind,
and heedless of the moon
I have wandered from my way.
- Meaning
- Blinded by the darkness of mourning robes I have no time to dry, I have lost my way, heedless though the moon is bright.
- Commentary
-
Book Eight Lament Poems 808
Headnote: "Composed on going secretly to a woman on a bright moonlit night, after Kōtokukō had passed away."
This is the first poem of the sequence on grief at losing someone close. It says that, blinded by the darkness of mourning robes he has no time to dry, he has lost his way without regard for the moonlit night. According to the headnote, after his father Kōtokukō died, he went secretly to a woman on a bright moonlit night and composed this poem.
The son of Grand Minister Fujiwara no Tamemitsu, the author became Middle Captain of the Left Inner Palace Guards but died young in Shōryaku 5 (994). He is one of the Thirty-Six Later Poetic Immortals. "Kōtokukō" is the author's father, Fujiwara no Tamemitsu, son of Minister of the Right Fujiwara no Morosuke, who rose to Grand Minister. He died in Shōryaku 3 (992).
The scene is a bright moonlit night after his father Tamemitsu's death, set on the way to the woman's house.
The direct occasion is going secretly to a woman on a bright moonlit night while in mourning for his father.
The first line, "hoshi mo aenu," means "unable even to dry." "Aenu" means "cannot manage to," and it speaks of having no time to dry sleeves wet with tears.
In the second line, "koromo no yami ni," "koromo" is the mourning robe. The heart shut in darkness by grief for his father is laid over the dark color of mourning robes and called "yami," darkness.
The third line, "kurasarete," means "made dark." "Re" is passive, speaking of the heart being darkened by the gloom of grief.
The fourth line, "tsuki to mo iwazu," means "without calling it a moonlit night." "The bright moonlit night" of the headnote and "yami" in the second line form a pair.
In the last line, "madoinuru kana," "madou" means to lose one's way and to be troubled at heart. "Nuru" marks completion and "kana" is exclamatory. Though the moon is bright, he has been darkened by the gloom of mourning and gone astray. From the poems of handwriting as a keepsake that ran to the preceding poem, 807, the book moves here to grief at losing a father, and the next poem, 809, also sings of grief at losing a father.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Michinobu
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Other
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- Though I seek it out, though the traces stay written thus, like the brush's stream its course is lost to me— such is the past, I find.
- Of days long ago, no more, and wept for, flowing, the brush's stream— it is on my sleeve's inner shore that its traces have come to rest.
- Deep in the water the thousand lights, my father's, are mirrored there, yet his form of days gone by is nowhere to be seen.
- Lost only in grief, I sleep and wake again, and on my pillow there comes no dawn at all that is not wet with tears.