草枕旅寝の人は心せよ
有明の月も傾きにけり
有明の月も傾きにけり
- Roma-ji
-
Kusamakura tabine no hito wa kokoro seyo ariake no tsuki mo katabuki ni keri
- English Translation
-
Pillowed on the grass,
you who sleep upon your way,
take heed of the hour;
even the moon of daybreak
has sunk low now in the sky.
- Meaning
- You who sleep on your journey, take heed: even the moon that lingers into the dawn has already sunk low in the sky.
- Commentary
-
Book Ten Travel Poems 925
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "For the Hundred-Poem Sequences of the Horikawa-in."
This is the sixth of a sequence of poems on the loneliness of sleeping on a journey. The speaker warns those sleeping on the road to take heed, for even the dawn moon has sunk low, telling them daybreak is near. According to the headnote, it was composed as part of a hundred-poem sequence in the time of the Horikawa-in.
The author, "Major Counselor Morotoshi," is Minamoto no Morotoshi. A son of Minister of the Left Minamoto no Toshifusa, he rose to Major Counselor, a noble of the late Heian period.
The scene is dawn after a night on the road, at a lodging where the dawn moon is sinking.
The direct occasion is the Horikawa Hundred-Poem Sequences, in which poets presented sets of one hundred poems in the reign of Emperor Horikawa.
The first line, "kusamakura," is a pillow word for journey, here attached to "tabine." As if taking up "kusamakura kana," the last line of 923, the grass pillow is placed here in the first line.
The second line, "tabine no hito wa," means "you who sleep on your journey." It takes the form of a call to those asleep on the road.
The third line, "kokoro seyo," means "take heed." Closing in the imperative, the poem breaks after this third line, warning them not to oversleep.
The fourth line, "ariake no tsuki mo," means "even the moon lingering at dawn." The particle "mo" shows that the night is already running out.
The last line, "katabuki ni keri," means "has sunk low." With the realizing "keri," it announces that dawn is close. Where the preceding poem pictures a traveler who has risen at dawn and taken the mountain road, this poem urges those still asleep to rise, and the one who has risen and those still sleeping form a pair.
- Author
- Minamoto no Moroyori
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- 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.
- On the mountain road I find I am drenched right through; where the white dew lies, rising at dawn, I have walked through the drops falling from the trees.
- Unused to the shore, my heart cannot bear it so, sleeping on my way in a hut thatched with the reeds, as the white waves break against it.
- Sleeping on my way, in a hut thatched with the reeds the cold is bitter, and the boats with brushwood cut are hurrying, I can hear.