荻風はふかはいもねて今よりそ
驚すかときくへかりける
驚すかときくへかりける
- Roma-ji
-
Ogikaze wa fukaba i mo nede ima yori zo odorokasu ka to kikubekarikeru
- English Translation
-
When the reed wind blows,
I should lie without sleeping,
and from this night on
listen, wondering if it is you
coming to stir me awake
- Meaning
- Whenever the wind stirs the reeds, I should lie awake from now on and listen, wondering whether it is you come to wake me.
- Commentary
-
19 Wind in the Reeds
After their Tanabata exchange, the end of the seventh month came. A letter arrived from the prince: "We have grown very distant; why do you not write to me now and then? You seem not to count me as anyone at all."
The woman is Izumi Shikibu, daughter of Ōe no Masamune and, as the wife of Tachibana no Michisada, Governor of Izumi, mother of Koshikibu no Naishi. The Prince of the Dazaifu is Prince Atsumichi, fourth son of Emperor Reizei, so called because he served as Governor-General of the Dazaifu.
When Izumi Shikibu's "Nezameneba kikanu naruran ogikaze wa fukazarame ya wa aki no yonayona" arrived, the prince wrote back at once: "Ah, you. 'Because you never wake,' you say? One wakes in the night when one is troubled by love, yet you think my feelings shallow," and returned this poem.
Two or three days later, at dusk, the prince unexpectedly drove his carriage straight into her grounds and stepped down.
The opening lines mean "if the reed wind blows, without even sleeping," taking up her "reed wind" and "would it fail to blow," with a negative connective.
The remaining lines mean "from now on I should listen, wondering whether it is you who wake me," where the verb means to rouse or make aware, with auxiliaries of expectation and exclamation, sealed by an emphatic construction. Answering her "because you do not wake," he promises to lie awake from now on waiting for the reed wind, and by appearing to concede in words, he enjoys her wit.
- Author
- Prince Atsumichi
- Source
- Izumi Shikibu Nikki
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Nezameneba kikanu naruran ogikaze wa fukazarame ya wa aki no yonayona
- Next Poem
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Tsurezure to aki no higoro no furu mama ni omoishirasenu ayashikarishi mo