Shikitae no makura toyomite ine raezu mono mō koyoi haya mo akenu kamo

敷栲の枕響みて寐ねらえず
物思ふ今夜早も明けぬかも

Roma-ji: Shikitae no makura toyomite ine raezu mono mō koyoi haya mo akenu kamo
English Translation: My fine-woven pillow
is resounding all night long;
I cannot find sleep;
this night of brooding on love,
will it not break into dawn soon?
Meaning: My pillow resounds, and I cannot fall asleep. On this night of longing, will the dawn not come soon?
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2593

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing One's Feelings Directly"
Unable to sleep for the brooding of love, tossing and turning until the pillow resounds, the speaker wishes the night would end quickly. The poem renders the length and misery of a sleepless night concretely through something close at hand, the sound of the pillow.
This poem continues the run on sleepless nights. Where poems 2587 and 2588 state that the speaker cannot sleep, this one expresses the pain of the sleepless night as a wish that the night would pass quickly.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather love poems by people whose names have not come down to us.

First line, "shikitae no": a pillow word attached to "pillow." Shikitae, cloth spread on the bed, leads into words such as pillow, robe and sleeve.
Second line, "makura toyomite": "the pillow resounding." It is usually taken to mean that the pillow makes a sound each time one turns over, though the reading of the original characters is disputed.
Third line, "ine raezu": "I cannot sleep." "Rae" is the potential auxiliary "rayu," negated by "zu." The sense breaks after the third line.
Fourth line, "mono mō koyoi": "this night of brooding." "Mono mou" means to be lost in the troubles of love, received by the noun "koyoi," tonight.
Fifth line, "haya mo akenu kamo": "will it not dawn soon?" "Nu kamo" is the negative "zu" in its attributive form with "kamo," expressing a wish. The line has one syllable too many.
Source: Manyoshu
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