夕月夜暁闇のおほほしく
見し人ゆゑに恋ひわたるかも
見し人ゆゑに恋ひわたるかも
- Roma-ji
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Yūzukuyo akatoki yami no ōhoshiku mishi hito yue ni koiwataru kamo
- English Translation
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On an early-moon night
the dark before the dawn is dim;
dimly, just like that,
I glimpsed you once, and yet for you
I go on longing still
- Meaning
- Like the dim darkness before dawn on a night of early moon, I only glimpsed you faintly, yet I go on longing for you.
- Commentary
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Book Twelve Expressing Thoughts through Things 3003
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Thoughts through Things"
Using the darkness before dawn on a night of early moon as an introduction, the poem sings of longing for someone seen only dimly. The strangeness of a love that grows precisely because the person was not clearly seen is conveyed through the image of darkness.
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, "yūzukuyo," is a night when the moon is up in the evening; since on such nights the moon has set by dawn, it leads to "akatoki yami," the darkness before dawn.
Line two, "akatoki yami no," means "of the dark before dawn," and the lines up to here form an introduction leading to "ōhoshiku."
Line three, "ōhoshiku," means "dimly, indistinctly."
Line four, "mishi hito yue ni," means "for the one I saw."
Line five, "koiwataru kamo," means "I go on longing."
- Author
- Unknown
- Source
- Manyoshu
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