はかなくて夢にも人を見つる夜は
朝の床ぞ起き憂かりける
朝の床ぞ起き憂かりける
- Roma-ji
-
Hakanakute yume ni mo hito o mitsuru yo wa ashita no toko zo okiukarikeru
- English Translation
-
On the fleeting nights
when I see my love at least
within my dreams,
how hard it is in the morning
to rise up from my bed.
- Meaning
- On those nights when, fleetingly, I see my love at least in a dream, how painful it is to rise from my bed in the morning.
- Commentary
-
Book Twelve Love Poems II 575
Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poet says that on nights when, unable to meet in reality, he fleetingly meets the beloved only in a dream, it is hard to rise from bed the next morning. The wish to savor the lingering dream a little longer and the pain of waking back into reality are expressed as reluctance to leave the morning bed. Like Komachi's poem at the head of this book, it sings of regret at waking from a dream.
The Monk Sosei was the son of Archbishop Henjō, and his lay name was Yoshimine no Harutoshi. After taking the tonsure he lived at Urin'in and later moved to Ryōin'in at Isonokami in Yamato. He is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.
First line, "hakanakute": describing something unreliable and empty, the fleetingness of meeting only in dreams.
Second line, "yume ni mo hito o": mo implies "at least in a dream." Hito is the beloved.
Third line, "mitsuru yo wa": tsuru is the attributive of the completion auxiliary tsu, "on nights when I have seen."
Fourth line, "ashita no toko zo": ashita is daybreak, the following morning. The binding particle zo pairs with keru in the final line.
Fifth line, "okiukarikeru": okiushi means reluctant or pained to get up. Keru is the attributive resolving zo and expresses realization. Like 552 of this book, which says she would not have woken had she known it was a dream, it sings of reluctance to wake from a dream and echoes the dream poem at the head of the book.
- Author
- Sosei Hoshi
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
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