Waga toko wa Shinobu no oku no masugehara tsuyu kakarite mo shiru hito no naki - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

我が床はしのぶの奥の真菅原
露かかりても知る人のなき

Roma-ji: Waga toko wa Shinobu no oku no masugehara tsuyu kakarite mo shiru hito no naki
English Translation: This bed of mine is
a field of sedge deep within
Shinobu, the land of secrets:
though the dew may fall on it,
there is no one who knows
Meaning: My bed is like a field of sedge deep in Shinobu, the land of hidden love. However much the dew of my tears falls on it, there is no one who knows.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems I 689

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
My bed, he says, is the sedge field deep in Shinobu; though dew falls on it, no one knows. Joining Shinobu in Michinoku with "shinobu," "to endure in secret," he likens the tears shed in secret on his lonely bed to the dew on a sedge field in a remote land where no one goes, singing of the solitude of hidden love.
The author, "Ōnakatomi no Sadamasa," was of the Ōnakatomi clan, who served as chief priests of the Ise Shrine. Little is known of his life.
Its last line, "shiru hito no naki," is the same as the last line of 668 of this book. The next two poems, 690 and 691, also sing of "Shinobu no yama," so that poems drawing on the place name Shinobu follow one another.

First line, "waga toko wa": "my bed."
Second line, "Shinobu no oku no": "shinobu" combines Shinobu in Michinoku and "shinobu," "to endure in secret." Like "Shinobu no yama" in the next two poems, it sings of the land of Shinobu.
Third line, "masugehara": a field thick with sedge, a figure for his bed. The poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "tsuyu kakarite mo": "tsuyu" is dew on the sedge field, a figure for tears, "though the dew may fall."
Fifth line, "shiru hito no naki": "there is no one who knows," ending in the attributive with a lingering sense. It is the same as the last line of 668.
Author: Onakatomi no Sadamasa
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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