Aware tomo makura bakari ya omouramu namida taesenu yowa no keshiki o - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

あはれとも枕ばかりや思ふらむ
涙絶えせぬ夜半の気色を

Roma-ji: Aware tomo makura bakari ya omouramu namida taesenu yowa no keshiki o
English Translation: Does my pillow, then,
alone feel some pity for
the sight of me here,
with my tears that never cease
in the deep hours of the night?
Meaning: Is it only my pillow that feels for me, seeing how I am through the dead of night, my tears never ceasing?
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 739

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
Does only my pillow feel pity, he asks, for the way I am in the dead of night, my tears never ceasing? Only the pillow that catches his tears knows how he weeps night after night, while the cold beloved pities him not at all, and he voices this lonely grief by personifying the pillow.
The author, "the monk Chōe," was a monk of the late Heian period. Little is known of his career.

First line, "aware tomo": "with pity, with tenderness."
Second line, "makura bakari ya": "bakari" is limiting and "ya" an interrogative particle binding with "ramu" in the third line, "my pillow alone," personifying the pillow.
Third line, "omouramu": "ramu" is the auxiliary of present conjecture, concluding the "ya" of the second line, "does it feel?" The poem pauses here and stands in inverted order with the lines that follow.
Fourth line, "namida taesenu": "with tears that never cease."
Fifth line, "yowa no keshiki o": "yowa" is the dead of night and "keshiki" one's appearance, "how I am in the depth of night," returning to "aware tomo" in the first line.
Author: Chōe
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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