思ふ人ありて帰ればいつしかの
妻待つ宵の声ぞ悲しき
妻待つ宵の声ぞ悲しき
- Roma-ji
-
Omou hito arite kaereba itsu shika no tsuma matsu yoi no koe zo kanashiki
- English Translation
-
Since I go back home
to the one I love, the voice
crying eagerly,
"when, oh when," at dusk, for its mate—
how sad it sounds to me
- Meaning
- Because I am going home to the one I love, the voice that cries at dusk, impatient for its mate, sounds all the sadder to me.
- Commentary
-
Book Nineteen Parting Poems 1365
Headnote: "When he had someone he loved in the capital and, coming back from a distant place, stopped on the way, around the Ninth Month."
The poet says that because he returns to one he loves, the voice at dusk eagerly waiting for its mate is sad. On the way home from a distant province with a beloved in the capital, he hears on an evening of the Ninth Month a cry for a mate, and finds it doubly sad as it echoes his own eagerness to meet her. The voice waiting for a mate seems to be that of a stag calling for a doe in autumn.
According to the headnote, with someone dear in the capital, he was coming back from a distant place and stopped on the way, around the Ninth Month. The next poem has the same headnote, and the two are placed side by side.
The poet is anonymous and the name is not known.
The first line, "Omou hito," means "the one I love," left behind in the capital.
The second line, "arite kaereba," means "since she is there and I return," with "ba" giving the cause.
The third line, "itsu shika no," means "longing eagerly, 'when, oh when.'"
The fourth line, "tsuma matsu yoi no," means "of the evening, waiting for a mate," overlaying the one waiting in the capital with the stag crying for its mate.
The last line, "koe zo kanashiki," means "the voice is sad," with "zo" closed by the attributive "kanashiki."
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Kusamakura momiji mushiro ni kaetaraba kokoro o kudaku mono naramashi ya
- Next Poem
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Kusamakura yuu te bakari wa nani nare ya tsuyu mo namida mo okikaeritsutsu