色づかふ秋の露霜な降りそね
妹が手本をまかぬ今夜は
妹が手本をまかぬ今夜は
- Roma-ji
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Irozukau aki no tsuyujimo na furi so ne imo ga tamoto o makanu koyoi wa
- English Translation
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Coloring all things,
dew and frost of autumn time,
do not fall, I pray!
Pillowed on my darling's arm
I am not, on this cold night.
- Meaning
- O autumn dew and frost that color all things, do not fall—not tonight, when I cannot pillow my head on my beloved's arm.
- Commentary
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Book Ten Autumn Love Poems 2253
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Love Expressed Through Dew"
This poem asks the autumn dew and frost that color the plants not to fall tonight, when the speaker sleeps alone without pillowing on the beloved's arm. It laments that dew and frost will add to the cold of sleeping alone. Like 2237 in the autumn miscellaneous poems, which lamented the cold of sleeping alone on a night of showers, it sings of the chill of a lonely night.
The first line, "irozukau," is taken to mean coloring things.
The second line, "the autumn dew and frost," names them.
The third line, "na furi so ne," uses "na ... so" for prohibition with "ne" adding a plea; the poem breaks here.
In the fourth line, "imo ga tamoto o," "tamoto" means the arm.
In the last line, "makanu koyoi wa," "maku" means to pillow on: tonight when I do not pillow on it. By inversion the reason comes at the end.
- Source
- Manyoshu
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