妹が袖別れし日より白妙の
衣かたしき恋ひつつぞ寝る
衣かたしき恋ひつつぞ寝る
- Roma-ji
-
Imo ga sode wakareshi hi yori shirotae no koromo katashiki koitsutsu zo nuru
- English Translation
-
Since the day I parted
from the sleeves of my beloved,
my white mulberry
robe I spread for one alone,
and lie there longing for her
- Meaning
- Ever since the day I parted from my beloved's sleeves, I spread only one sleeve of my white robe and lie down alone, longing for her.
- Commentary
-
Book Fifteen Love Poems V 1359
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the fourth poem of the sequence on tears and waters. Since the day he parted sleeves with his beloved, the speaker spreads a single sleeve of his robe, sleeping alone and longing on. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Anonymous," indicates a poet whose name has not come down.
This poem appears in nearly the same form in Book Eleven of the Man'yōshū.
The first line, "imo ga sode," refers to the sleeves of the beloved woman. "Imo" is a word a man uses affectionately for his lover or wife.
The second line, "wakareshi hi yori," means "since the day we parted sleeves." It sings in Man'yō words of the same scene as "our sleeves part" in the opening poem.
The third line, "shirotae no," is a pillow word for "robe." It is the same word as the first line of the opening poem, so that parted sleeves and white cloth overlap in the two poems.
The fourth line, "koromo katashiki," describes sleeping alone with only one sleeve of one's own robe spread out.
The last line, "koitsutsu zo nuru," is the same last line as 1356 and closes the kakari-musubi of "zo" with the attributive "nuru." The waters of tears do not appear here, but the shared last line binds it into the sequence.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
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Omoboezu sode ni minato no sawagu kana morokoshibune no yorishi bakari ni
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Au koto no nami no shitakusa migakurete shizugokoro naku ne koso nakarure