思ひやれむなしき床をうち払ひ
昔をしのぶ袖のしづくを
昔をしのぶ袖のしづくを
- Roma-ji
-
Omoiyare munashiki toko o uchiharai mukashi o shinobu sode no shizuku o
- English Translation
-
Think of it, please:
as I sweep the empty bed
where now I lie alone,
the drops upon my sleeves
as I long for days gone by
- Meaning
- Imagine, I beg you, the tears on my sleeves as I brush off the empty bed and long for days gone by.
- Commentary
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Book Nine Poems of Lament 574
Headnote: "Sent when Higo wrote to ask after me while I was grieving at being left behind by my wife"
Sent when the lady-in-waiting Higo wrote to ask after the poet while he grieved at the death of his wife. Imagine, he says, the drops on my sleeves as I sweep the empty bed and long for the past. He tells the one who sent her sympathy of the loneliness of sleeping alone in a bed without his wife and of the tears he sheds remembering their days together.
The author, "Fujiwara no Mototoshi," was the son of Minister of the Right Fujiwara no Toshiie. Though he did not rise high in rank, he was a leading figure of the poetic world, ranked with Minamoto no Toshiyori, and became the teacher of Fujiwara no Shunzei, compiler of this anthology. He has a poem in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
First line, "omoiyare": the imperative of "omoiyaru," "please imagine." The poem pauses here. It uses the same word as "omoi koso yare" in the last line of the preceding poem, 573.
Second line, "munashiki toko o": "the empty bed" where his wife no longer lies.
Third line, "uchiharai": "brushing off" the dust from the bed, showing the loneliness of sleeping alone.
Fourth line, "mukashi o shinobu": "longing for the past" spent with his wife.
Fifth line, "sode no shizuku o": the drops of tears wetting the sleeves, returning by inversion to "omoiyare" in the first line.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Mototoshi
- Source
- Senzai Wakashu
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Ayamegusa ukine o mite mo namida nomi kakuran sode o omoi koso yare
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Mune ni mitsu omoi o dani mo harukasade keburi to naramu koto zo kanashiki