Toe kashi na katashiku fuji no koromode ni namida no kakaru aki no nezame o

English Translation

Come and call on me—
on the mourning sleeve I spread
as I sleep alone,
where tears keep falling
as I wake in autumn night.

Meaning

Come, call on me, won't you—waking in the autumn night, with tears falling on the sleeve of my mourning robe, spread beneath me as I sleep alone.

Commentary

Book Eight Lament Poems 846

Headnote: "Sent to Suō no Naishi around autumn of the year after my wife died."
This is the third poem of the sequence lamenting the deaths of those close. It asks to be visited in his waking on autumn nights, with tears falling on the sleeve of the mourning robe he spreads as he sleeps alone. According to the headnote, it was sent to Suō no Naishi around autumn of the year after his wife died.
The son of Fujiwara no Tsunehira, the author rose to Provisional Middle Counselor and compiled the Goshūi Wakashū by order of Emperor Shirakawa. "Suō no Naishi" is Taira no Nakako, a lady-in-waiting and poet who served as a palace attendant through four reigns, from Emperor Go-Reizei to Emperor Horikawa.
The scene is waking on an autumn night the year after his wife's death, and the place is not recorded.
The direct occasion is sending a poem to Suō no Naishi in autumn of the year after losing his wife.

In the first line, "toe kashi na," "tou" means to call on someone. "Kashi" is a final particle of insistence and "na" is exclamatory, meaning "do come and call on me." The poem pauses after the first line.
In the second line, "katashiku fuji no," "katashiku" means to spread only one sleeve of one's own robe and sleep alone. "Fuji" refers to "fujigoromo," the mourning robe.
In the third line, "koromode ni," "koromode" is the sleeve.
The fourth line, "namida no kakaru," means "where tears fall," and modifies "nezame" in the last line.
In the last line, "aki no nezame o," "o" marks the object of "toe" in the first line. Through inversion, the image of himself he wishes visited is placed at the end. It tells of the loneliness of autumn nights, sleeping alone after losing his wife. 790 and 791 of this book are also an exchange recalling a death on waking in autumn, singing of the same "aki no nezame." Following the grief at losing a friend in the preceding poem, 845, this poem sings of grief at losing a wife.

Author

Fujiwara no Michitoshi

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other