暁とつげの枕をそばだてて
聞くも悲しき鐘の音かな
聞くも悲しき鐘の音かな
- Roma-ji
-
Akatsuki to tsuge no makura o sobadatete kiku mo kanashiki kane no oto kana
- English Translation
-
"It is dawn," it tells,
and tilting my boxwood pillow
I lie and listen—
how sad even to hear
the tolling of the bell.
- Meaning
- Tilting my boxwood pillow to listen as it tells me it is dawn, I find it sad even to hear the sound of the bell.
- Commentary
-
Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems III 1809
Headnote: "Composed on the feeling of dawn."
This follows as the second poem on the sound of the bell and is the first on dawn. It is sad even to hear the bell announcing dawn, as he tilts his boxwood pillow to listen. According to the headnote, it was composed on the feeling of dawn.
The author, "Kōtaigōgū no Daibu Shunzei," is Fujiwara no Shunzei. A son of Fujiwara no Toshitada, he compiled the Senzai Wakashū. He was the father of Fujiwara no Teika.
The third line, "makura o sobadatete," draws on Bai Juyi's lines, "The bell of Yiai Temple I hear with pillow tilted; the snow on Xianglu Peak I see with the blind raised."
The first line, "akatsuki to," means "that it is dawn." From the evening bell of the preceding poems the time moves to the dawn bell.
In the second line, "tsuge no makura o," "tsuge" is a pivot word meaning both "telling" and a pillow made of boxwood, tsuge.
The third line, "sobadatete," means "tilting the pillow to listen," drawing on Bai Juyi's lines.
The fourth line, "kiku mo kanashiki," means "sad even to hear."
In the last line, "kane no oto kana," "kana" is exclamatory. The dawn bell, marking the end of night, is sung of as a sound that announces impermanence. It pairs with the evening bells of the two preceding poems, setting the bells of dusk and dawn side by side.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Shunzei
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Mataretsuru iriai no kane no oto su nari asu mo ya araba kikamu to su ramu
- Next Poem
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Akatsuki no yūtsukedori zo aware naru nagaki nemuri o omou makura ni