枕とていづれの草に契るらん
行くを限りの野辺の夕暮
行くを限りの野辺の夕暮
- Roma-ji
-
Makura tote izure no kusa ni chigiruran yuku o kagiri no nobe no yūgure
- English Translation
-
As my pillow now,
with which of these grasses
might I make my pledge?
Going on as far as I can,
evening on the moor.
- Meaning
- Which of these grasses will I pledge to be my pillow tonight? I go on as far as I can, as evening falls on the open moor.
- Commentary
-
Book Ten Travel Poems 964
Headnote: "On the topic 'Evening on a journey.'"
This is the fifteenth of a sequence of poems on the road at nightfall and lodging for the night. The speaker wonders which of the grasses he will pledge to be his pillow tonight, going on as far as he can as evening falls on the moor, a journey across the fields with no lodging in sight. According to the headnote, it was composed on the topic "Evening on a journey."
The author, Kamo no Chōmei, was a poet of the early Kamakura period. Born into a family of priests of Shimogamo Shrine, he became a fellow of the Poetry Bureau and later took holy orders and wrote An Account of My Hut.
The scene is dusk on a journey, on the open moor.
The direct occasion is composing on the topic "Evening on a journey."
The first line, "makura tote," means "as my pillow." It thinks of the night's bed.
The second line, "izure no kusa ni," means "with which of the grasses." Like "izure no yama ka" in 956, it shows in the form of a question the forlornness of a journey whose way ahead cannot be seen.
The third line, "chigiruran," means "might I make my pledge?" Taking up "chigiri nite" in the preceding poem, it sings of sleep on the road pledged not with an innkeeper but with the grasses. The poem breaks after this third line. Like "makura musuban" in 947, it is a night with grass for a pillow.
The fourth line, "yuku o kagiri no," means "going on as far as I can." It shows the traveler walking on until nightfall with no lodging in view.
The last line, "nobe no yūgure," means "evening on the moor," ending on a noun. The poems on the road at nightfall and lodging that have continued since 950 end on an evening on the moor with no lodging in sight.
- Author
- Kamo no Chomei
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- On a bed of rock, the storm wind spread in the place of a single sleeve, must I sleep alone tonight at Sayo-no-Nakayama?
- With no one certain, an evening at an inn is my only pledge; how many nights will I call on a host who always changes?
- By the roadside here, where the grasses are green, I rein in my horse and still, even now, look back toward the home I left behind.
- Crossing Hatsuse's mountain as the evening fell, I asked for lodging; through the cypress groves of Miwa only the autumn wind blows.