夕されば人なき床をうち払ひ
嘆かむためとなれる我が身か
嘆かむためとなれる我が身か
- Roma-ji
-
Yū sareba hito naki toko o uchiharai nagekamu tame to nareru waga mi ka
- English Translation
-
When the evening comes
I sweep clean the lonely bed
where no lover lies;
have I then become a person
who does this only to grieve?
- Meaning
- When evening comes I brush the dust from the empty bed where no one lies. Have I become someone who lives only to grieve?
- Commentary
-
Book Fifteen Love Poems V 815
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
Every evening the speaker sweeps the bed for a lover who will not come, and in the end has become someone who only grieves. The concrete habit of dusting the bed expresses a heart that cannot let go of a finished love. Following the reflection in the mirror of the preceding poem, it depicts the loneliness of one left behind.
In the first line sareba means "as it draws near," so "when evening comes," the hour of waiting for a visit.
The second line, "the bed where no one is," shows there is no one to share it.
The third line uses the prefix uchi and means to sweep away the dust, a gesture of preparing for the lover.
The fourth line, "in order to grieve," shows that sweeping the bed leads only to grief.
In the last line ka is a question tinged with exclamation: have I become such a person? She looks back on herself.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
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