おきなから明せる霜の朝こそ
まされる物はよになかりけれ
まされる物はよになかりけれ
- Roma-ji
-
Okinagara akaseru shimo no ashita koso masareru mono wa yo ni nakarikere
- English Translation
-
Of all things, there are
none in this world that surpass
the frost-white morning
that follows a night I passed
awake until the dawn
- Meaning
- Nothing in this world is harder to bear than a frosty morning after lying awake all night until the dawn.
- Commentary
-
38 Of One Heart
The day after their exchange about the sadness of evening, early in the morning, the frost lay very white. A letter came from the prince: "Well, how are you at this hour this morning?"
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.
On the frosty white morning a letter came from the prince asking how she was, and Izumi Shikibu answered with this poem.
So the two exchanged poems. Later the prince, writing at length of tender things as usual, sent "Ware hitori omou wa omou kai mo nashi onaji kokoro ni kimi mo aranan."
The opening lines mean "of the frost after a night I spent awake," where "oki" means both staying up without sleep and frost settling, with an auxiliary of completion. The third line means "than the morning."
The lower verses mean "there was nothing in the world that surpassed it," sealed by an emphatic construction ending in an exclamatory auxiliary. The pain of a morning seeing the white frost after a sleepless night of longing for the prince surpasses all else in the world; so she answers his "how are you this morning?" with candor.
- Author
- Izumi Shikibu
- Source
- Izumi Shikibu Nikki
- Prev Poem
-
Yūgure wa tare mo sa nomi zo omōyuru machiwabu kimi zo hito ni masareru
- Next Poem
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Ware hitori omou wa omou kai mo nashi onaji kokoro ni kimi mo aranan