枕より後より恋の攻め来れば
せむ方なみぞ床中にをる
せむ方なみぞ床中にをる
- Roma-ji
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Makura yori ato yori koi no semekureba semukata nami zo tokonaka ni oru
- English Translation
-
From my pillow's side,
from the foot of my bed as well,
love comes on attack,
and with nowhere left to turn
I sit in the middle of my bed
- Meaning
- Love assails me from the pillow and from the foot of the bed alike, so with nowhere to go I sit huddled in the middle of my bedding.
- Commentary
-
Book Nineteen Miscellaneous Forms 1023
Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The torment of love is pictured concretely and comically as an assault from both head and foot, leaving the lover trapped in the middle of the bed. Treating love as an invading enemy gives the poem its haikai flavor.
The author is unknown and is recorded as "Anonymous."
First line, "Makura yori," means from the head of the bed.
Second line, "ato yori koi no," uses "ato," the foot of the bed, for being hemmed in from both ends.
Third line, "semekureba," treats love as an enemy launching an attack.
Fourth line, "semukata nami zo," has "nami," the stem of "nashi" with causal "mi": because there is nothing to be done. "Zo" is an emphatic particle.
Fifth line, "tokonaka ni oru," ends in the attributive "oru" in response to "zo."
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
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