Arishi yo no tabi wa tabi tomo arazariki hitori tsuyukeki kusamakura kana

English Translation

In days that are gone,
a journey was not at all
a journey to me;
now alone and wet with dew
is this pillow made of grass.

Meaning

In the days when he was alive, a journey never felt like a journey at all; now I lie alone on a pillow of grass, wet with dew and tears.

Commentary

Book Ten Travel Poems 923

Headnote: "Composed when, after losing the one she had relied on, she went on pilgrimage to Hatsuse, and at the place where she stayed the night someone gave her grass, saying, 'Tie this and make a pillow of it.'"
This is the fourth of a sequence of poems on the loneliness of sleeping on a journey. When he was alive a journey hardly felt like a journey, but now she lies alone on a dew-wet pillow of grass, the loneliness of traveling after being left behind. According to the headnote, having lost the one she relied on, she made a pilgrimage to Hatsuse, and at her lodging for the night someone gave her grass to tie into a pillow.
The author, Akazome Emon, was a lady-in-waiting and poet of the mid-Heian period. She was the wife of Ōe no Masahira and served Rinshi, the wife of Fujiwara no Michinaga. She is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals of the middle ages.
The scene is a night on the pilgrimage to Hatsuse after the loss of the one she relied on, at a lodging on the way to Hatsuse in Yamato Province.
The direct occasion is being given grass for a pillow at her lodging.
The "Hatsuse" of the headnote is the place in Yamato Province where Hasedera stands.

The first line, "arishi yo no," means "of the days when he was alive." The "shi," the attributive form of the past auxiliary "ki," shows days now lost.
The second line, "tabi wa tabi tomo," means "a journey as a journey." Repeating "tabi" stresses how the same journey is utterly different now and then.
The third line, "arazariki," means "it did not seem so." Closing with the past "ki," the poem breaks after this third line, showing that journeys taken with the one she relied on were no hardship at all.
The fourth line, "hitori tsuyukeki," means "alone and wet with dew." "Tsuyukeki" means soaked with dew and stands for both night dew and tears. Like "hitori ya kimi ga" in 902 and the poem of the lost companion in 917, it sings of traveling alone without a companion.
The last line, "kusamakura kana," means "ah, this pillow of grass." It weaves in the grass pillow given her in the headnote, laying the real pillow over the idea of sleeping on the road. The word "kusamakura," placed in the first line of 905, is here placed in the last line, receiving the poems on sleeping on the road with that word.

Author

Akazome Emon

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other