今来むと言ひて別れし朝より
思ひくらしの音をのみぞなく
思ひくらしの音をのみぞなく
- Roma-ji
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Ima komu to iite wakareshi ashita yori omoi kurashi no ne o nomi zo naku
- English Translation
-
"I will come back soon,"
you said, and since that morning
when we two parted,
lost in thought I spend the day,
crying like the evening cicada
- Meaning
- Since the morning we parted, when you said, "I'll come again soon," I have spent the whole day thinking of you, crying out like the evening cicada.
- Commentary
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Book Fifteen Love Poems V 771
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
The poem says that since parting in the morning with a promise to return soon, she has spent the whole day in tears thinking of him. Written by a man in a woman's voice, it uses the pivot from omoi kurashi, "spending the day in thought," to higurashi, the evening cicada, merging her weeping till dusk with the insect's cry. It shares higurashi with the next poem.
The author, "Archbishop Henjō," is Henjō, whose lay name was Yoshimine no Munesada. A grandson of Emperor Kammu and son of Major Counselor Yoshimine no Yasuyo, he served Emperor Ninmyō as Head Chamberlain but took the tonsure on the emperor's death, later becoming archbishop. He is one of the Six Poetic Immortals and the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.
The first line, "I'll come soon," is the lover's promise at parting.
In the second line shi, attributive of the past ki, means "having said so and parted."
The third line names the morning of parting, from which time passes.
In the fourth line kurashi is a pivot word, joining "spending the day in thought" with higurashi, the evening cicada.
In the last line ne means voice, and naku means both a cicada's cry and a person's weeping. Zo is resolved by the attributive, stressing that she does nothing but weep.
- Author
- Henjō
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Waga yado wa michi mo naki made arenikeri tsurenaki hito o matsu to seshi ma ni
- Next Poem
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Kome ya to wa omou mono kara higurashi no naku yūgure wa tachimataretsutsu