Mono o nomi omoinezame no makura ni wa namida kakaranu akatsuki zo naki

English Translation

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.

Meaning

On the pillow where I lie down and wake again lost only in grief, there is no dawn on which tears do not fall.

Commentary

Book Eight Lament Poems 810

Headnote: "Composed around the time Lord Kintada died."
This is the third poem of the sequence on grief at losing someone close. It says that on the pillow where he sleeps and wakes lost only in grief, there is no dawn without tears. According to the headnote, it was composed around the time Lord Kintada died.
The son of Minamoto no Kintada, the author served as Governor of Mutsu and in other posts. He is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals. "Lord Kintada" is the author's father, Minamoto no Kintada, a grandson of Emperor Kōkō, who served as Major Controller of the Right. He too is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.
The scene is dawn around the time his father Kintada died, set in his bedchamber.
The direct occasion is the death of his father Kintada.

In the first line, "mono o nomi," "nomi" is restrictive, meaning "only in grief."
The second line, "omoinezame no," means "sleeping in grief and waking again." "Omoine," sleeping in grief, and "nezame," waking, run together, describing a night of lament without real sleep.
The third line, "makura ni wa," means "on the pillow" of the bed where he wakes.
The fourth line, "namida kakaranu," means "on which tears do not fall," and modifies "akatsuki," dawn, in the last line.
In the last line, "akatsuki zo naki," "zo" is an emphatic binding particle, completed by the attributive "naki." Through a doubled negative, saying that every night at dawn the pillow is wet with tears, it shows how grief never ceases. Continuing the lament for a lost father from the preceding poem, 809, the scene moves from the light in the depths of the water to tears on the pillow at dawn. The next poem, 811, is also a poem of seeing the dead in a dream while asleep.

Author

Minamoto no Saneakira

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other