Kagiri naki omoi no hodo no yume no uchi wa odorokasaji to nagekikoshi kana

English Translation

While you remain
in the dream of your sorrow,
boundless as it is,
I would not wake you, I thought,
and have grieved all this while.

Meaning

While you were lost in the dream of a sorrow without bounds, I thought I must not startle you awake, and so I have grieved in silence all this while.

Commentary

Book Eight Lament Poems 828

Headnote: "Sent to the Regent and Grand Minister in the autumn when the mother of Provisional Middle Counselor Michiie had passed away."
This is the second poem of the sequence on visits of mourning and condolence, and the opening poem of an exchange. It says that while the other was in the dream of boundless grief, the poet refrained from sending condolences so as not to startle him awake, and has grieved all the while. According to the headnote, it was sent to the Regent and Grand Minister in the autumn when the mother of Provisional Middle Counselor Michiie died.
The son of Provisional Middle Counselor Fujiwara no Toshitada, the author served as Master of the Empress Dowager's Household and compiled the Senzai Wakashū. He was the father of Fujiwara no Teika. The "Regent and Grand Minister" is Fujiwara no Yoshitsune, son of Kujō Kanezane, who wrote the kana preface to the Shin Kokin Wakashū. "Provisional Middle Counselor Michiie" is Yoshitsune's son Kujō Michiie, whose mother was Yoshitsune's wife, a daughter of Ichijō Yoshiyasu.
The scene is autumn in the year Michiie's mother died, and the place is not recorded.
The direct occasion is consoling Yoshitsune, who had lost his wife.

The first line, "kagiri naki," means "without bounds," and modifies "omoi" in the second line.
In the second line, "omoi no hodo no," "omoi" is the grief of having lost a wife. "Hodo" means "while."
The third line, "yume no uchi wa," means "while within a dream." It likens the days of grief just after the death, which hardly seem real, to a dream.
In the fourth line, "odorokasaji to," "odorokasu" means to wake someone or startle them. "Ji" expresses negative intention, meaning "so as not to startle the one in the dream." It speaks of the consideration of not stirring up grief with words of condolence.
In the last line, "nagekikoshi kana," "koshi" means "have been doing," and "kana" is exclamatory. It says that while holding back his condolences, he himself has grieved in secret. Following the preceding poem, 827, a poem of visiting the dwelling of the dead, this becomes a poem of condolence to one left behind. The next poem, 829, replies by taking up this "dream."

Author

Fujiwara no Shunzei

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other