秋ならで置く白露は寝覚めする
我が手枕の雫なりけり
我が手枕の雫なりけり
- Roma-ji
-
Aki narade oku shiratsuyu wa nezame suru waga tamakura no shizuku narikeri
- English Translation
-
White dew that settles
though autumn has not yet come
is but the droplets
fallen on my pillowed arm
as I wake alone at night
- Meaning
- The white dew that settles even though it is not autumn turns out to be the drops of tears falling on the arm I pillow my head on when I wake in the night.
- Commentary
-
Book Fifteen Love Poems V 757
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
Thinking dew has settled though it is not autumn, the speaker realizes it is her own tears as she lies awake. White dew, an emblem of autumn, stands for tears, and the single word "arm-pillow" conveys the loneliness of sleeping alone.
In the first line de is a negative conjunctive particle: "though it is not autumn." It assumes that dew belongs to autumn.
The second line names the gleaming white dew that will stand for tears. Wa marks the topic, whose true nature is revealed at the end.
The third line describes waking in the night, unable to sleep for thoughts of love.
The fourth line, "my arm-pillow," shows she sleeps alone with no one beside her.
The last line, narikeri, expresses sudden realization: what looked like dew was the drops of her tears. The conceit is unveiled to close the poem.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
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