夕月夜暁闇の朝影に
我が身はなりぬ汝を思ひかねに
我が身はなりぬ汝を思ひかねに
- Roma-ji
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Yūzukuyo akatoki yami no asakage ni a ga mi wa narinu na o omoi kane ni
- English Translation
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Like the morning shade
in the darkness before dawn
after evening moons,
so thin has my body grown,
unable to bear my love for you
- Meaning
- Like a faint shadow cast in the dark before dawn, in the season when the moon rises at evening, my body has wasted away, for I cannot bear my longing for you.
- Commentary
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Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2664
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
Wasting away like a faint morning shadow in the darkness before dawn, the speaker laments a body worn thin by the unbearable longing of love. When the moon rises at evening it sets early, leaving the hours before dawn dark, and in the pale, thin shadow cast in that darkness the speaker sees the image of a self consumed by love.
Following the poems addressed through the gods, a run of poems on the moon begins here. The phrase "asakage ni a ga mi wa narinu" also appears in poems 2394 and 2619 of this book, suggesting it was a set expression for a body wasted by love. This poem prefixes it with "evening moon" and "darkness before dawn," turning it into a poem on the moon.
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, "yūzukuyo": a night when the moon is up at evening. In that season the moon sets around midnight and the dawn is dark, so the word leads into "darkness before dawn."
Second line, "akatoki yami no": the darkness before daybreak. Together with the first line it forms a preface leading to "morning shadow," evoking a dim light in the gloom.
Third line, "asakage ni": the thin, frail shadow cast by the faint morning light. The particle "ni" marks what one becomes, likening the wasted body to such a shadow.
Fourth line, "a ga mi wa narinu": "my body has become so." The poem pauses here with the perfective auxiliary "nu," stating forcefully the present state of one worn out by love.
Fifth line, "na o omoi kane ni": "unable to bear my thoughts of you." The reason is added afterward in inverted order, and the direct address "na" (you) carries a note of intimacy.
- Source
- Manyoshu
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Chihayaburu kami no ikaki mo koenu beshi ima wa waga na no oshikeku mo nashi
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Tsuki shi areba akuramu waki mo shirazu shite nete wa ga koshi o hito mikemu kamo