来ぬ人を秋のけしきや更けぬらむ
恨みに弱るまつむしの声
恨みに弱るまつむしの声
- Roma-ji
-
Konu hito o aki no keshiki ya fukenuramu urami ni yowaru matsumushi no koe
- English Translation
-
Waiting for one who
does not come, has autumn's mood
grown so late and deep?
Faltering in its reproach,
the voice of the pine cricket.
- Meaning
- While I wait for the one who does not come, has autumn deepened so far? The voice of the pine cricket grows faint with reproach.
- Commentary
-
Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 1321
Headnote: "For a poetry contest at the house of the Regent and Grand Minister."
This is the fourth poem of the sequence of love's grief sung through autumn imagery. Waiting for one who does not come, the speaker wonders, has autumn deepened so far? The pine cricket's voice weakens with reproach. According to the headnote, it was submitted to a poetry contest held at the house of Fujiwara no Yoshitsune.
The author, "Jakuren the Priest," had the lay name Fujiwara no Sadanaga; a nephew of Fujiwara no Shunzei, he was adopted as his son. He was appointed a compiler of the Shinkokinshū but died before its completion.
The first line, "konu hito o," means "the one who does not come," and connects to "matsu," wait, in the last line. It is the same first line as in 1283 and 1287.
The second line, "aki no keshiki ya," means "the mood of autumn." "Ya" is interrogative, answered by "ramu" in the third line.
The third line, "fukenuramu," means "has it deepened?" and the poem breaks after it. The deepening of the night is overlaid with the deepening of autumn.
The fourth line, "urami ni yowaru," means "weakening with reproach." The fading of insect voices as autumn deepens is seen as the reproach of one weary of waiting.
In the last line, "matsumushi no koe," "matsu" is a pivot word meaning both the "pine" cricket and "waiting." Running on from "konu hito o" in the first line to "wait," it entrusts to the fading insect voice a heart that weakens with reproach as it waits for one who does not come.
- Author
- Jakuren
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Kiewabinu utsurou hito no aki no iro ni mi o kogarashi no mori no shiratsuyu
- Next Poem
-
Waga koi wa niwa no murahagi uragarete hito o mo mi o mo aki no yūgure