暁のゆふつけ鳥ぞあはれなる
長き眠りを思ふ枕に
長き眠りを思ふ枕に
- Roma-ji
-
Akatsuki no yūtsukedori zo aware naru nagaki nemuri o omou makura ni
- English Translation
-
The cock that crows
as dawn is breaking stirs me
with such deep sorrow,
here upon my pillow, thinking
of the long sleep of this world.
- Meaning
- How moving is the cock's cry at dawn, heard on my pillow as I think of the long sleep of delusion in this world.
- Commentary
-
Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems III 1810
Headnote: "From a hundred-poem sequence."
This is the second of the poems on dawn. How moving is the crow of the cock at dawn, heard from the pillow on which she thinks of the long sleep of delusion. In the crow of the cock announcing daybreak she reflects on a self that does not wake from delusion. According to the headnote, it comes from a hundred-poem sequence.
The author, "Princess Shikishi," was a daughter of Emperor Go-Shirakawa who served as Kamo Priestess. She later took vows.
The first line, "akatsuki no," takes up "akatsuki to" of the preceding poem, and poems on dawn continue.
In the second line, "yūtsukedori zo," "yūtsukedori" is another name for the cock. The particle "zo" reaches to the close of the third line.
The third line, "aware naru," closes the kakari-musubi of "zo" in the attributive. The cock's cry moves her deeply, and the poem pauses here.
The fourth line, "nagaki nemuri o," likens the human world caught in the delusion of birth and death to a long sleep that never ends. It shares the conception of "the long road of dreams" in 1804 of this book.
The last line, "omou makura ni," means "on the pillow where I lie thinking so." Taking up the "pillow" of the preceding poem, it continues with sounds of dawn heard from the pillow.
- Author
- Princess Shokushi
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Akatsuki to tsuge no makura o sobadatete kiku mo kanashiki kane no oto kana
- Next Poem
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Kaku bakari uki o shinobite nagaraeba kore yori masaru mono mo koso omoe