ただ今夜逢ひたる子らに言どひも
いまだせずしてさ夜ぞ明けにける
いまだせずしてさ夜ぞ明けにける
- Roma-ji
-
Tada koyoi aitaru kora ni kotodoi mo imada sezu shite sayo zo akenikeru
- English Translation
-
Just this night alone
I have met my darling girl,
and words between us
not yet spoken, even so
oh, the night has turned to dawn.
- Meaning
- With the girl I met only this one night, I have not yet even exchanged words, and already the night has dawned.
- Commentary
-
Book Ten Autumn Miscellaneous Poems 2060
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Tanabata"
This poem, in the Herdsman's voice, laments that the night has dawned before he could even exchange words with the Weaver he finally met tonight. The extreme brevity of a meeting awaited for a year is condensed into the expression that they could not even speak. The Herdsman who hurried "before the night grows late" in the preceding poem here already meets the dawn, as time leaps forward within the series.
The first line, "just tonight," is a short line.
The second line, "the girl I met," names the beloved.
The third line, "even exchanging words," names what has not been done.
The fourth line, "not yet having done so," marks the incompleteness.
In the last line, "sayo zo akenikeru," "zo" is an emphatic particle in kakari-musubi with the attributive "keru"; the line is hypermetric, closing with a lament at the heartless dawn.
- Source
- Manyoshu
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Amanogawa nami wa tatsu tomo waga fune wa iza kogiidemu yo no fukenu ma ni
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Amanogawa shiranami takashi aga kouru kimi ga funade wa ima shi surashi mo