Aki no yo o mono omou koto no kagiri to wa hitori nezame no makura ni zo shiru - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

秋の夜を物思ふことの限りとは
ひとり寝覚めの枕にぞ知る

Roma-ji: Aki no yo o mono omou koto no kagiri to wa hitori nezame no makura ni zo shiru
English Translation: That autumn nights are
the very height of brooding
over love, I learn
upon my pillow, waking
in the night to sleep alone
Meaning: That the autumn night is the very height of love's brooding, I come to know on my pillow, waking in the night as I sleep alone.
Commentary: Book Fifteen Love Poems V 952

Headnote: "Composed on the topic 'love on an autumn night'"
Composed on the topic "love on an autumn night." That the autumn night is the utmost of brooding, he says, I learn on my pillow, waking alone. Sleeping alone with no lover through the long, lonely autumn night and waking suddenly in the dark, his brooding deepens beyond measure, and he comes to know in his bones that the autumn night is the very limit of brooding, singing of the loneliness of sleeping alone on an autumn night.
The author, "the monk Kenshō," was the adopted son of Fujiwara no Akisuke, Master of the Western Capital Office. Known as a scholar of poetics of the Rokujō Fujiwara house, he wrote treatises such as Shūchūshō.
Following "the parting from autumn" in 949 of this book, it sings of love on an autumn night. And just as 920 treated the pillow as a person and sang of a lonely bed, this poem entrusts the loneliness of sleeping alone to the pillow.

First line, "aki no yo o": "the autumn night," taking up "autumn night" in the topic. It shares "aki" with "aki no wakare ni" in the second line of 949 of this book.
Second line, "mono omou koto no": "of brooding over love."
Third line, "kagiri to wa": "kagiri" means the utmost, "that it is the height of brooding."
Fourth line, "hitori nezame no": "nezame" is waking suddenly in the night, here waking on a night of sleeping alone. It shares the theme of sleeping alone with "hitori wa nenan" in the fourth line of 957 of this book.
Fifth line, "makura ni zo shiru": the emphatic "zo" closes with the attributive "shiru," "I learn it on my pillow." It shares "makura" with "ikani makura no" in the second line of 920 of this book.
Author: Kenshō
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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