秋の夜の霧立ちわたりおほほしく
夢にぞ見つる妹が姿を
夢にぞ見つる妹が姿を
- Roma-ji
-
Aki no yo no kiri tachiwatari ōhoshiku ime ni zo mitsuru imo ga sugata o
- English Translation
-
On the autumn night
as the mist spreads everywhere,
dim and indistinct
in a dream I saw her there—
the figure of my darling.
- Meaning
- As the autumn night's mist spreads over everything, so dimly did I see in a dream the figure of my beloved.
- Commentary
-
Book Ten Autumn Love Poems 2241
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Autumn Love Poems"
This poem says that, like mist spreading over an autumn night, the speaker dimly saw the beloved's figure in a dream. The haziness of the mist in the upper lines leads into "ōhoshiku," conveying the frustration of the beloved's form not clearly seen in the dream. Like 1909 in the spring love poems, "spring haze trailing over the hills, dimly," it draws "ōhoshiku" from mist or haze, singing of autumn mist against spring haze.
Kakinomoto no Hitomaro was a court poet of the Asuka period, active under Empress Jitō and Emperor Monmu. The left note records that this poem comes from the Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection, and it is uncertain whether it is Hitomaro's own work or a poem by someone else that he recorded.
The first line, "of the autumn night," is hypermetric.
The second line, "the mist spreading," with the upper lines forming a preface leading into "ōhoshiku."
The third line, "ōhoshiku," means dimly.
In the fourth line, "ime ni zo mitsuru," "zo" is an emphatic particle in kakari-musubi with the attributive "tsuru." The poem breaks here.
The last line, "my beloved's figure," names by inversion what was seen at the end.
- Author
- Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
- Source
- Manyoshu
- Prev Poem
-
Tazo kare to ware o na toi so nagatsuki no tsuyu ni nuretsutsu kimi matsu ware o
- Next Poem
-
Aki no no no obana ga ure no oinabiki kokoro wa imo ni yorinikeru ka mo