Tachinagara koyoi wa akenu sonohara ya fuseya to iu mo kai nakari keri

English Translation

Standing all night long,
I have seen this evening end;
at Sonohara,
though they call the hut a place to lie,
the name was of no use at all.

Meaning

Standing the whole night through, I have watched the dawn come. At Sonohara the hut is called a place for lying down, yet the name did me no good at all.

Commentary

Book Ten Travel Poems 913

Headnote: "On a painting of the Misaka region of Shinano, the scene where a traveler lodges at a place called Sonohara and stays standing until dawn."
This is the fourth of a sequence of poems on lodging for the night on a journey. The night has ended while the traveler stood, and though the hut at Sonohara is called a place to lie down, the name was of no use, a sleepless night on the road. According to the headnote, it was composed on a painting of the Misaka area of Shinano showing a traveler who lodged at Sonohara and stood until dawn.
The author, Fujiwara no Suketada, was an official and poet of the mid-Heian period. "Ason" is an honorific added to the names of those of the fourth or fifth rank.
The scene is a traveler's night of lodging until dawn, at Sonohara near the Misaka pass in Shinano Province.
The direct occasion is composing on a scene depicted in a painting.

The first line, "tachinagara," means "standing all the while." It shows a night passed without being able to lie down and sleep.
The second line, "koyoi wa akenu," means "tonight has ended in dawn." The perfective "nu" closes the line, and the poem breaks after this second line.
The third line, "sonohara ya," calls up Sonohara, a famous place in Shinano. Sonohara lies near the Misaka pass and is sung of together with its huts and broom trees. The particle "ya" presents the place name with emotion.
The fourth line, "fuseya to iu mo," means "though it is called a hut for lying down." "Fuseya" is a rough hut lodging travelers; the poet reads "fusu," to lie down, in its name and sets it against "tachinagara" in the first line.
The last line, "kai nakari keri," means "it was of no use." With the realizing "keri," it laments that, contrary to the name, he could not lie down at all. Where 910 speaks of a journey with no inn and the preceding poem of a dream on the road, this poem tells of a night when lodging was found yet sleep was not, closing the sequence on lodging.

Author

Fujiwara no Sukemasa

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other