来めやとは思ふものからひぐらしの
鳴く夕暮れは立ち待たれつつ
鳴く夕暮れは立ち待たれつつ
- Roma-ji
-
Kome ya to wa omou mono kara higurashi no naku yūgure wa tachimataretsutsu
- English Translation
-
Though I tell myself
surely you will never come,
at the evening hour
when the cicadas are crying
I rise and wait all the same
- Meaning
- Though I tell myself you surely will not come, each evening when the cicadas cry I find myself rising to wait for you all the same.
- Commentary
-
Book Fifteen Love Poems V 772
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
Knowing full well that the lover will not come, the speaker still rises to wait each evening when the cicadas cry. The gap between reason and heart is drawn through the hour of dusk, when lovers visit, and the cicada's voice. Like the preceding poem it names the higurashi, and poems of waiting continue.
In the first line meya, the perfective of mu with rhetorical ya, means "will you come? No, you will not."
In the second line mono kara is concessive: "though I think so."
The third line names the cicada that cries at dusk, leading to the fourth line. It also appears in the fourth line of the preceding poem.
The fourth line names the evening, when lovers visit, singled out by wa.
In the last line re is the spontaneous auxiliary ru, "I find myself rising to wait," and tsutsu shows it happens every evening.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Ima komu to iite wakareshi ashita yori omoi kurashi no ne o nomi zo naku
- Next Poem
-
Imashi wa to wabinishi mono o sasagani no koromo ni kakari ware o tanomuru