Fushiwabinu shino no ozasa no karimakura hakana no tsuyu ya hitoyo bakari ni

English Translation

Lying, I cannot sleep
on this pillow made of grass,
of cut bamboo leaves;
how fleeting is the dew
on just a single night.

Meaning

I lie here and cannot sleep on this makeshift pillow of cut bamboo grass; how fleeting the dew is, falling so thick for just a single night.

Commentary

Book Ten Travel Poems 961

Headnote: "On the heart of travel."
This is the twelfth of a sequence of poems on the road at nightfall and lodging for the night. Unable to sleep on a makeshift pillow of cut bamboo grass, the speaker finds fleeting dew settling even on a single night's lodging, a dew-drenched night on the road. According to the headnote, it was composed on the heart of travel.
The author, "Arie Ason," is Fujiwara no Arie. A son of Fujiwara no Shigeie, he was a poet of the early Kamakura period and one of the compilers of the Shin Kokin Wakashū.
The scene is a single night sleeping on the road, on a plain thick with bamboo grass.
The direct occasion is composing on the topic "the heart of travel."

The first line, "fushiwabinu," means "I lie and cannot sleep." Closing with the perfective "nu," the poem breaks after the first line.
The second line, "shino no ozasa no," means "of the small bamboo grass." It shows the grass of the plain that becomes the traveler's bed.
In the third line, "karimakura," "kari" carries both "kari," makeshift, and "kari," the cutting of bamboo grass. Following "komomakura" in 946 and "sayomakura" in 948, a traveler's pillow is sung of again.
The fourth line, "hakana no tsuyu ya," means "how fleeting the dew." "Ya" expresses feeling. The dew also suggests tears.
In the last line, "hitoyo bakari ni," "hitoyo" carries both "one night" and "one node," a word associated with bamboo. It ends with a lament that dew settles even on a single night's lodging. Time moves from the "evening sky" of the preceding poem to a single night of sleep on the road.

Author

Fujiwara no Ariie

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other