秋の野に笹分けし朝の袖よりも
逢はで来し夜ぞひちまさりける
逢はで来し夜ぞひちまさりける
- Roma-ji
-
Aki no no ni sasa wakeshi asa no sode yori mo awade koshi yo zo hichi masarikeru
- English Translation
-
More than my sleeves
that morning when I parted
the bamboo grass of autumn fields,
it was the night I came back unmet
that left them soaked the more
- Meaning
- Wetter than my sleeves on the morning I pushed through dewy bamboo grass in the autumn fields were my sleeves on the night I came home without meeting you.
- Commentary
-
Book Thirteen Love Poems III 622
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
The sleeves are soaked with dew on a morning spent pushing through the bamboo grass of autumn fields, but sleeves on a night of returning without a meeting are wetter still with tears, the poet says. By comparing them with the dew-soaked sleeves of a morning after, the poem brings out the depth of sorrow at not meeting.
The author, recorded as Narihira Ason, is Ariwara no Narihira. He was the fifth son of Prince Abo and is counted among the Six Poetic Immortals and the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.
This poem also appears in section 25 of The Tales of Ise, where it is paired with the next poem by Ono no Komachi and told as a poem sent to a woman who would not meet him.
The first line, "aki no no ni," sets the scene in dewy autumn fields that will wet the sleeves.
The second line, "sasa wakeshi asa no," refers to the morning of returning through the grass after a tryst, using shi, the attributive of the past ki.
The third line, "sode yori mo," uses the comparative yori making the dew-wet sleeves the standard.
The fourth line, "awade koshi yo zo," emphasizes that night with the particle zo.
The final line, "hichi masarikeru," closes the zo construction with keru, the attributive of the exclamatory keri.
- Author
- Ariwara no Narihira
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Awanu yo no furu shirayuki to tsumorinaba ware sae tomo ni kenubeki mono o
- Next Poem
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Mirume naki waga mi o ura to shiraneba ya karenade ama no ashi tayuku kuru