Ashihiki no yamadori no o no shidario no naganagashi yo o hitori ka mo nemu - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

あしひきの山鳥の尾のしだり尾の
長々し夜をひとりかも寝む

Roma-ji: Ashihiki no yamadori no o no shidario no naganagashi yo o hitori ka mo nemu
English Translation: Like the copper pheasant's
tail upon the mountainside,
its long drooping tail,
through this long and lengthy night
must I lie sleeping alone?
Meaning: Through a night as long as the long drooping tail of the mountain pheasant, must I sleep all alone?
Commentary: Book Thirteen Love Poems III 778

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
The poem laments whether one must sleep alone through an autumn night as long as the drooping tail of the copper pheasant. The upper verse on the pheasant's tail serves as a preface leading to "naganagashi," long, and its leisurely rhythm impresses the length of the night spent alone. The copper pheasant was said to sleep at night apart from its mate across a valley, making it a fitting image for the grief of sleeping alone.
The author, "Hitomaro," is Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, a court poet of the Asuka period revered as the sage of poetry and the foremost poet of the Man'yōshū, and one of the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets. Many Man'yōshū poems are included in the Shūishū under Hitomaro's name.
A similar poem appears in Book Eleven of the Man'yōshū as a variant from another text. It was chosen for the Hyakunin Isshu as a poem by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro and is widely known.

First line, "ashihiki no," is a pillow word modifying "yama," mountain. It is the same line as the first line of the preceding poem, 777, the second in the sequence beginning "ashihiki no."
Second line, "yamadori no o no," means "of the copper pheasant's tail." From here to the third line forms a preface leading to "naganagashi."
Third line, "shidario no," means "like the long drooping tail," the repeated "no" drawing the rhythm out at length.
Fourth line, "naganagashi yo o," means "the long, long night," taking up the preface to speak of the night's length.
Final line, "hitori ka mo nemu," means "must I sleep alone," concluding in the attributive form of the conjectural "mu" in answer to the particles "ka" and "mo." Like the final line of the preceding poem, 777, "waga hitori nen," it speaks of sleeping alone, so that the book's first two poems stand side by side in that grief.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Source: Shui Wakashu
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