しののめの別れを惜しみ我ぞまづ
鳥より先になきはじめつる
鳥より先になきはじめつる
- Roma-ji
-
Shinonome no wakare o oshimi ware zo mazu tori yori saki ni nakihajimetsuru
- English Translation
-
Grieving to part
at the first light of the dawn,
it was I who first
before ever the cock could crow
began to cry aloud
- Meaning
- So loath was I to part at dawn that I was the first to cry, before the cock had even crowed.
- Commentary
-
Book Thirteen Love Poems III 640
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
Pained by the parting at dawn, the poet says she began to cry before the cock that announces daybreak could crow. With naki punning on "crow" and "cry," the image of weeping even before the bird that signals parting conveys how deeply she regrets the separation.
The author, recorded as Utsuku, is said to have been a woman of the Saga Genji line, but little is known of her life.
The first line, "shinonome no," means "of the dawn," opening with the same words as the first line of poem 637 and carrying on the theme of parting at daybreak.
The second line, "wakare o oshimi," means "grieving over the parting."
The third line, "ware zo mazu," means "it was I, before all others," stressing the self with zo.
The fourth line, "tori yori saki ni," means "before the cock that tells the dawn."
The final line, "nakihajimetsuru," uses naki as a pivot word for "crow" and "cry," closing the zo construction with tsuru, the attributive of the perfective tsu.
- Author
- Minamoto no Utsuku
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
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