秋立ちて幾日もあらねばこの寝ぬる
朝明の風は手本寒しも
朝明の風は手本寒しも
- Roma-ji
-
Aki tachite ikuka mo araneba kono nenuru asake no kaze wa tamoto samushi mo
- English Translation
-
Since autumn began
not many days have passed, yet
after this night's sleep
the wind that blows at dawn
blows cold within my sleeves
- Meaning
- Though only a few days have passed since autumn began, the dawn wind after this night's sleep feels cold in my sleeves.
- Commentary
-
Book Eight Autumn Miscellaneous Poems 1555
Headnote: "A poem by Prince Aki"
Though only a few days have passed since the first day of autumn, the dawn wind after a night's sleep already feels cold in his sleeves. The poem catches both the calendar autumn and the autumn felt on the skin, with a faint sense of the loneliness of sleeping alone.
The author, Prince Aki, was a grandson of Prince Shiki and the father of Prince Ichihara, a member of the imperial family in the Nara period.
The first line means "autumn having begun."
In the second line, "neba" has the concessive sense of "though not many days."
The third line, with an extra syllable, means "after sleeping this night."
The fourth line names the wind that blows at dawn.
The final line, with the exclamatory "mo," expresses the cold felt in his sleeves. In that cold one can also read the loneliness of having no one to lie beside.
- Author
- Prince Aki
- Source
- Manyoshu
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