草枕結ふ手ばかりは何なれや
露も涙もおきかへりつつ
露も涙もおきかへりつつ
- Roma-ji
-
Kusamakura yuu te bakari wa nani nare ya tsuyu mo namida mo okikaeritsutsu
- English Translation
-
My grass pillow—why,
of all things, the hands that tie it,
what can this mean—
both the dew and my tears fall
and I wake, again and again
- Meaning
- Why is it that on the very hands that tie my grass pillow both dew and tears keep settling, and I keep starting up from sleep again and again?
- Commentary
-
Book Nineteen Parting Poems 1366
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "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 asks why, on the hands that tie the grass pillow, both dew and tears settle as he wakes again and again. Sleeping on the road while thinking of his beloved in the capital, dew and tears fall on the hands that bind his grass pillow, and he cannot sleep but keeps rising, singing of a restless night before his homecoming.
According to the headnote, it was composed on the same occasion as the preceding poem, sleeping on the road while returning from a distant place to someone dear in the capital.
The poet is anonymous and the name is not known.
The first line, "Kusamakura," is a pillow of tied grass, standing for sleep on a journey.
The second line, "yuu te bakari wa," means "only the hands that tie it."
The third line, "nani nare ya," means "what can this be," with "ya" interrogative. The poem pauses here.
The fourth line, "tsuyu mo namida mo," means "both dew and tears," setting the dew on the grass beside tears of longing.
The last line, "okikaeritsutsu," is a pivot word on "oki," both dew and tears settling and rising from bed: they settle, and I wake again and again. "Tsutsu" expresses repetition.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
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Omou hito arite kaereba itsu shika no tsuma matsu yoi no koe zo kanashiki
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Akiyama ni madou kokoro o Miyataki no taki no shiraawa ni kechi ya hatetemu