昼は来て夜は別るる山鳥の
影見る時ぞ音は泣かれける
影見る時ぞ音は泣かれける
- Roma-ji
-
Hiru wa kite yoru wa wakaruru yamadori no kage miru toki zo ne wa nakarekeru
- English Translation
-
Coming by the day
and parting from me by night,
like the copper pheasant—
it is when I see your form
that I cannot help but weep
- Meaning
- Like the copper pheasant that stays close by day and parts at night, it is when I see your figure that I cannot help crying aloud.
- Commentary
-
Book Fifteen Love Poems V 1372
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the second poem of the sequence on birds and beasts. Like the copper pheasant that keeps company by day and sleeps apart at night, the speaker cannot help crying aloud precisely when seeing the beloved's figure. 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.
The first line, "hiru wa kite," means "coming close by day."
The second line, "yoru wa wakaruru," means "parting to sleep at night." It pairs with the first line, setting day against night.
The third line, "yamadori no," takes up the "tooyamadori" of the preceding poem. The first two lines spell out the tradition that the copper pheasant stays with its mate by day and sleeps across a ridge at night.
In the fourth line, "kage miru toki zo," "kage" means figure, and the particle "zo" governs the last line. Where the preceding poem sang of hearing news of a distant beloved, this one sings of the pain of seeing the beloved yet not sharing the night, so that hearing and seeing form a pair.
The last line, "ne wa nakarekeru," closes the kakari-musubi of "zo" with the attributive "keru." "Re" is spontaneous: "I cannot help crying aloud."
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Kumo no iru tooyamadori no yoso ni te mo ari to shi kikeba wabitsutsu zo nuru
- Next Poem
-
Ware mo shika nakite zo hito ni koirareshi ima koso yoso ni koe o nomi kike