あかねさす日の暮れゆけばすべをなみ
千たび嘆きて恋ひつつぞ居る
千たび嘆きて恋ひつつぞ居る
- Roma-ji
-
Akanesasu hi no kureyukeba sube o nami chitabi nagekite koitsutsu zo oru
- English Translation
-
As the madder-red
sun goes sinking into dusk,
I know no remedy;
sighing a thousand times
I sit here lost in love
- Meaning
- As the sun sets, there is nothing I can do; sighing a thousand times, I sit here longing for you.
- Commentary
-
Book Twelve Expressing Thoughts Directly 2901
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Thoughts Directly"
As the sun sets, the poet cannot bear the longing and goes on loving while sighing a thousand times. Evening was also the hour of waiting for a lover's visit, and the poem tells of feelings that swell at that hour.
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, "akanesasu," meaning "glowing madder-red," is a pillow word for "hi," the sun.
Line two, "hi no kureyukeba," means "as the day grows dark," showing that dusk is the hour when longing swells.
Line three, "sube o nami," means "since there is nothing to be done," "nami" being the "mi" form of "nashi."
Line four, "chitabi nagekite," means "sighing a thousand times," exaggerating the number to show the depth of grief.
Line five, "koitsutsu zo oru": the particle "zo" is concluded by the attributive "oru." Poem 3030 in this book ends with the same line.
- Author
- Unknown
- Source
- Manyoshu
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