Sayo fukete imo o omoiide shikitae no makura mo soyo ni nagekitsuru kamo

さ夜更けて妹を思ひ出で敷栲の
枕もそよに嘆きつるかも

Roma-ji: Sayo fukete imo o omoiide shikitae no makura mo soyo ni nagekitsuru kamo
English Translation: Late into the night
I found my darling in my thoughts,
and on my pillow
of soft-spread cloth I sighed
till the pillow rustled with it
Meaning: Deep in the night I thought of my beloved and sighed so hard that my pillow rustled.
Commentary: Book Twelve Expressing Thoughts Directly 2885

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Thoughts Directly"
The poem tells of remembering the beloved late at night and sighing so deeply that the pillow rustled. The concrete detail of the pillow's small sound conveys both the stillness of night and the depth of grief.
The poet is unknown. Book Twelve, titled the second part of "Love Poems Exchanged Old and New," gathers love poems by people whose names have not come down to us, arranged by category.

Line one, "sayo fukete": "sa" is a prefix, and the line means "the night growing late."
Line two, "imo o omoiide," means "remembering my beloved."
Line three, "shikitae no," is a pillow word for "makura," pillow.
Line four, "makura mo soyo ni": "soyo" is the sound of things brushing together, "so that even the pillow rustled."
Line five, "nagekitsuru kamo," means "I found myself sighing." It is the same final line as poem 2864 in this book; there a woman sighs waiting for a man, while here a man sighs thinking of his beloved.
Author: Unknown
Source: Manyoshu
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