み吉野の秋津の小野に刈る草の
思ひ乱れて寝る夜しぞ多き
思ひ乱れて寝る夜しぞ多き
- Roma-ji
-
Miyoshino no Akizu no ono ni karu kaya no omoimidarete nuru yo shi zo ōki
- English Translation
-
Like the grasses cut
on Akizu Moor in fair
Yoshino,
my thoughts lie all in tangles,
and many are such nights
- Meaning
- Like the grass cut on Akizu Moor in lovely Yoshino, my thoughts lie in tangles, and many are the nights I sleep like this.
- Commentary
-
Book Twelve Expressing Thoughts through Things 3065
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Thoughts through Things"
Using the tangle of grass cut on Akizu Moor in Yoshino as an introduction, the poet sings of many nights spent sleeping with a troubled heart. The image of cut grass lying in disarray is overlaid with a heart in turmoil from love.
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, "Miyoshino no," means "of Yoshino" in Nara Prefecture, "mi" being honorific.
Line two, "Akizu no ono ni," means "on Akizu Moor" in Yoshino. Poem 3179 in this book also features Akizu Moor.
Line three, "karu kaya no," means "like the grass that is cut," read "karu kaya" in the kana line. The lines up to here form an introduction leading from the disarray of cut grass to "omoimidarete."
Line four, "omoimidarete," means "my thoughts in tangles."
Line five, "nuru yo shi zo ōki": "shi" is emphatic and "zo" is concluded by the attributive "ōki."
- Author
- Unknown
- Source
- Manyoshu
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Hitomina no kasa ni nuu to iu Arimasuge arite nochi ni mo awamu to zo omou
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Imo matsu to Mikasa no yama no yamasuge no yamazu ya koimu inochi shinazu wa