Inishie ni arikemu hito mo waga goto ka imo ni koitsutsu inekatezukemu

いにしへにありけむ人も我がごとか
妹に恋ひつつ寐ねかてずけむ

Roma-ji: Inishie ni arikemu hito mo waga goto ka imo ni koitsutsu inekatezukemu
English Translation: Those who lived long past,
in the days of long ago,
were they too like me,
longing for their loves at night,
lying sleepless until dawn
Meaning: Did people who lived long ago also, like me, lie awake through the night, unable to sleep for longing for their wives?
Commentary: Book Four Love Poems 497

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Four poems by Kakinomoto no Asomi Hitomaro"
The poet wonders whether people of long ago, like him, spent sleepless nights longing for their wives. He tries to see his own private pain as a feeling shared by all people across time. Where the preceding poem sang of love through the scenery before him, this one turns to those of the past, and the next poem answers its question.
The author, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, was a court poet active in the reigns of Empress Jitō and Emperor Monmu; a master of both long and short poems, he was revered by later ages as the saint of poetry.

First line, "Those who lived long past," means in ancient times, shifting the poem's viewpoint at once into the past.
Second line, "in the days of long ago," uses the past conjectural kemu: those who must have lived then.
Third line, "were they too like me," means as I do, with the particle ka posing a question; it is closed by the attributive kemu in the fifth line.
Fourth line, "longing for their loves at night," uses tsutsu for continuation: while longing on and on for their wives.
Fifth line, "lying sleepless until dawn," joins inu, "to sleep," with katezu, "unable to," asking whether they too could not sleep and closing in the attributive as ka requires. The next poem, "the people of old surpassed us," answers this question.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Source: Manyoshu
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