夏の夜は浦島の子が箱なれや
はかなくあけて悔しかるらん
はかなくあけて悔しかるらん
- Roma-ji
-
Natsu no yo wa urashima no ko ga hako nare ya hakanaku akete kuyashikaruran
- English Translation
-
Is the summer night
Urashima's box, perhaps,
that once opened up,
dawning all too fleetingly,
brings so much regret to me?
- Meaning
- Is the summer night the box of Urashima? It opens into dawn so swiftly, leaving only regret, as when he opened his box.
- Commentary
-
Book Two Summer Poems 122
Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poem likens the summer night, which ends so quickly, to the box that Urashima opened and regretted. With "akete" meaning both the dawning of night and the opening of a box, it wittily overlays the regret of a short night with the legend of Urashima.
Nakatsukasa was a woman poet of the mid-Heian period, the daughter of Prince Atsuyoshi and Ise. Like her mother Ise, she is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.
First line, "natsu no yo wa," echoes "natsu no yo no" in the first line of the preceding poem, taking the short summer night as its theme.
Second line, "urashima no ko ga," refers to Urashima, the hero of the legend. It draws on the tale that he aged in an instant when he opened the box he had brought back from the Dragon Palace.
Third line, "hako nare ya," means "is it the box," with the questioning particle "ya," which is resolved by "ran" in the final line.
Fourth line, "hakanaku akete," is a pivot word in which "akete" means both the dawning of the night and the opening of the box. The dawn that the preceding poem feared, "ake mo koso sure," has actually come in this poem, so the two poems stand before and after in time.
Final line, "kuyashikaruran," means "how regretful it must be," with "ran," the attributive of the present conjectural auxiliary, closing the construction begun by "ya."
- Author
- Nakatsukasa
- Source
- Shui Wakashu
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