暁の寝覚めの千鳥誰がためか
佐保の河原にをちかへり鳴く
佐保の河原にをちかへり鳴く
- Roma-ji
-
Akatsuki no nezame no chidori ta ga tame ka Saho no kawara ni ochikaeri naku
- English Translation
-
Before the daybreak,
the plovers awake from sleep—
for whose sake is it
that on the riverbed of Saho
they cry out again and again?
- Meaning
- The plovers, waking before the dawn—for whose sake do they cry again and again on the riverbed of Saho?
- Commentary
-
Book Eight Miscellaneous Poems I 484
Headnote: "On the way to Hatsuse, staying near Mount Saho, on hearing plovers cry"
The poet wonders for whom the plovers, waking before dawn, cry again and again on the riverbed of the Saho. The headnote shows he composed it on hearing plovers cry while staying near Mount Saho on the way to worship at Hasedera in Hatsuse. At dawn while sleeping away from home, he turns his heart to the plovers that, like him, are awake and crying, and so conveys the loneliness of the journey. Places in Yamato along the road to Hatsuse also appear in 486 and 491 of this book.
The author, written as Yoshinobu, is Ōnakatomi no Yoshinobu. A son of Ōnakatomi no Yorimoto, he served as chief priest of the Ise Shrine. He was one of the Five Men of the Pear Chamber and is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.
First line, "akatsuki no," means "of the dark before dawn."
Second line, "nezame no chidori," means "the plovers awake from sleep," implying that the traveling poet too is awake.
Third line, "ta ga tame ka," means "for whose sake," with "ka" a questioning particle.
Fourth line, "Saho no kawara ni," means "on the riverbed of the Saho" in Yamato, a famous place for plovers.
Final line, "ochikaeri naku," means "cry again and again," resolving "ka" with the attributive "naku."
- Author
- Onakatomi no Yoshinobu
- Source
- Shui Wakashu
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Sasanami ya Ōmi no miya wa na nomi shite kasumi tanabiki miyakimori nashi
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Asakaranu chigiri musuberu kokoroba wa tamuke no kami zo shirubekarikeru