Haru no yo no yū bakari naru tamakura ni kainaku tatan na koso oshikere - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

春の夜の夕ばかりなる手枕に
かひなく立たん名こそ惜しけれ

Roma-ji: Haru no yo no yū bakari naru tamakura ni kainaku tatan na koso oshikere
English Translation: For a pillowing arm
no longer than an evening
of a night in spring,
how I would regret a name
that rose for nothing at all
Meaning: For an arm offered as a pillow for no longer than an evening of a spring night, how I would regret a rumor rising about me to no purpose.
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 964

Headnote: "Around the second month, on a moonlit night, when many people stayed up all night talking at Nijō-in, I, Suō no Naishi, leaned back and softly said, "I wish I had a pillow." Hearing this, Major Counselor Tadaie thrust his arm beneath the blinds, saying, "Use this as your pillow," and so I composed this"
On a moonlit night around the second month, when many people stayed up talking at Nijō-in, Suō no Naishi leaned back and quietly said she wished for a pillow. Hearing this, Major Counselor Fujiwara no Tadaie thrust his arm beneath the blinds, saying, use this as a pillow, and she composed this poem. How I would regret a rumor rising to no purpose for an arm-pillow lasting a mere moment of a spring night, she says. Playing "kainaku," to no purpose, against "kaina," the arm thrust in, she deftly turns aside Tadaie's jest with wit.
The author, "Suō no Naishi," was the daughter of Taira no Munenaka, Governor of Suō, and her name was Nakako. She served four emperors from Go-Reizei to Horikawa. A poem of hers is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
This poem appears in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu in the form "haru no yo no yume bakari naru tamakura ni." The next poem, 965, is Tadaie's reply, so the two poems of the exchange stand side by side. The text gives the second line as "yū bakari naru," which does not agree with "yume bakari naru" in the reading line; here the text is followed.

First line, "haru no yo no": "of a spring night," short and fleeting. It answers "haru no yo fukaki" in the second line of the next poem, 965.
Second line, "yū bakari naru": "lasting no more than an evening," expressing the fleetingness of a moment.
Third line, "tamakura ni": an arm used as a pillow, here the arm Tadaie thrust in.
Fourth line, "kainaku tatan": "kainaku," to no purpose, is a pivot word that also contains "kaina," arm. "Tatan" means a rumor would rise.
Fifth line, "na koso oshikere": "na" means reputation or rumor; the emphatic binding particle "koso" closes with the realis "oshikere," "how I would regret my name."
Author: Suo no Naishi
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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