草枕旅行く背なが丸寝せば
家なる我れは紐解かず寝む
家なる我れは紐解かず寝む
- Roma-ji
-
Kusamakura tabi yuku sena ga marune seba iwa naru ware wa himo tokazu nemu
- English Translation
-
Pillowed on the grass
if my husband on the road
sleeps in all his clothes,
I who stay at home shall too
sleep with my sash still tied
- Meaning
- If my husband on his journey sleeps in his clothes, then I at home will also sleep without untying my sash.
- Commentary
-
Book Twenty Frontier Guard Poems 4416
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems of the frontier guards sent in rotation to the provinces of Tsukushi in the second month of Tenpyō Shōhō 7, year of the wood sheep."
If my husband on the road sleeps in his clothes, I at home will sleep with my sash tied: the poem sings of a wife who would share her husband's hardship. It is the fourth poem from Musashi and is thought to be by the wife of Mononobe no Toshitoko, author of the preceding poem. Where the husband longs for his wife as for a pearl, the wife answers by matching herself to his nights on the road. Iwa for ie is a dialect form.
The author, Kurahashibe no Tojime, is recorded as a guard's wife and is thought to be the wife of Mononobe no Toshitoko; nothing more is known of her.
The first line, "kusamakura," "grass pillow," is a pillow word for "journey."
The second line, "tabi yuku sena ga," "my husband going on a journey," uses sena, an affectionate word for husband.
The third line, "marune seba," "if he sleeps in his clothes," shows the hardship of sleeping on the road.
The fourth line, "iwa naru ware wa," "I who am at home," answers "my wife at home" in the preceding poem.
The closing line, "himo tokazu nemu," "I will sleep without untying my sash," with the volitional mu: by sleeping as he does, she would be one with him in heart.
- Author
- Kurahashibe no Tojime
- Source
- Manyoshu
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