ほととぎす夢かうつつか朝露の
おきて別れし暁の声
おきて別れし暁の声
- Roma-ji
-
Hototogisu yume ka utsutsu ka asatsuyu no okite wakareshi akatsuki no koe
- English Translation
-
Hototogisu,
was it a dream or waking,
as the morning dew
settled and I rose to part,
that voice in the hour before dawn
- Meaning
- The cuckoo's call: was it a dream or was it real, that voice I heard at dawn when, as the morning dew settled, I rose and parted from you?
- Commentary
-
Book Thirteen Love Poems III 641
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
The poet cannot tell whether the call of the hototogisu heard at the dawn of parting was a dream or reality. The dazed heart, still caught in the afterglow of meeting and the sorrow of parting, is entrusted to the uncertainty of the bird's cry.
The author is recorded as anonymous, and the name has not come down to us.
Placed among the poems of parting at dawn, the phrase "a dream or waking" appears again in the Ise Priestess's poem, 645, in this book, leading toward poems on the borderland between dream and reality.
The first line, "hototogisu," names the summer bird whose cry at dawn is often sung.
The second line, "yume ka utsutsu ka," means "dream or reality?" repeating ka to show a mind unable to decide, with a pause after the second line.
The third line, "asatsuyu no," means "the morning dew settles," leading into oki.
The fourth line, "okite wakareshi," uses oki as a pivot word for "dew settles" and "rise," meaning "rose and parted."
The final line, "akatsuki no koe," ends on a noun, naming the cry heard at dawn and echoing the first line.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
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