Akatsuki no namida ya sora ni taguuramu sode ni ochikuru kane no oto kana - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

暁の涙や空にたぐふらむ
袖に落ちくる鐘の音かな

Roma-ji: Akatsuki no namida ya sora ni taguuramu sode ni ochikuru kane no oto kana
English Translation: Do my tears at dawn
rise up into the sky and
go along with it?
Falling down upon my sleeve,
the sound of the temple bell.
Meaning: Do my tears of parting at dawn rise into the sky and travel with it? The sound of the temple bell seems to fall onto my sleeve.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 1330

Headnote: "On the topic 'Love at Dawn.'"
This is the first poem of the sequence on love sung through tear-wet sleeves and winter imagery. Do my tears of parting at dawn go along with the bell in the sky? the speaker wonders; its sound seems to fall onto my sleeve. According to the headnote, it was composed on the topic "Love at Dawn."
The author, "the Former Archbishop Jien," was a son of the Chancellor Fujiwara no Tadamichi; he served four times as head of the Tendai school and wrote the history Gukanshō. "Former Archbishop" means one who formerly held the office of archbishop.
"Love at Dawn" is a topic for love in which lovers part before daybreak. The dawn bell, rung at temples to mark the hour, was sung as the signal for lovers to part.

The first line, "akatsuki no," means "of the dawn," marking the topic of love at dawn.
In the second line, "namida ya sora ni," "ya" is interrogative, answered by "ramu" in the third line.
The third line, "taguuramu," means "do they go along together?" and the poem breaks after it. Tears and the sound of the bell are imagined as keeping company in the sky.
The fourth line, "sode ni ochikuru," means "falling onto my sleeve." It is the tears that should fall on the sleeve, but here the sound of the bell is said to fall there.
The last line, "kane no oto kana," is an exclamation. Uniting the sound of the bell heard by the ear with the tears falling on the sleeve, it shows the bell that announces parting becoming tears that wet the sleeve. Here begins the final sequence of the book, sung through tear-wet sleeves and winter imagery.
Author: Jien
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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