つまこふとおきあかしつる霜なれは
- Roma-ji
-
Tsuma kou to okiakashitsuru shimo nareba
- English Translation
-
Because this is frost
from a night I lay awake till dawn,
longing for my love
- Meaning
- Since this is the frost of a night I spent awake until dawn, longing for my love...
- Commentary
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27 Frosty Mornings and the Page Boy
On the night of their exchange about the arm-pillow sleeve, the moon also shone very bright and clear, and Izumi Shikibu and the prince each gazed at it until dawn in their separate places. The next morning the prince was having someone ask whether his usual page boy had come, meaning to send a letter. Meanwhile Izumi Shikibu, perhaps moved by the brilliant whiteness of the frost, sent a poem first. The prince was vexed at having been forestalled.
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. The page boy was the youth who carried the prince's letters to her.
When Izumi Shikibu's "Tamakura no sode ni mo shimo wa okikeru o kesa uchimireba shirotae ni shite" arrived first, the prince, vexed at being forestalled, murmured this upper verse in response.
Just as he murmured it, the boy arrived, and the prince, out of humor, said, "How annoying. I wanted it sent early," and handed over the letter he had prepared. The lower verse was never added, and only this upper verse is recorded.
The opening lines mean "that I spent awake till dawn longing for my love," where "tsuma" means a spouse or lover and "oki" means both lying awake and frost settling, with a perfective auxiliary.
The third line means "since it is frost," a conditional of fact. Taking up her "frost" and "settled," he begins an impromptu reply: that frost settled precisely because he had stayed awake all night in longing. The verse breaking off after the upper half reveals his vexation at being forestalled and his distraction at the boy's arrival.
- Author
- Prince Atsumichi
- Source
- Izumi Shikibu Nikki
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