Nezame tsutsu nagaki yo kana to iwareno ni iku aki satemo waga mi henuran

寝覚めつつ長き夜かなといはれ野に
幾秋さても我が身経ぬらん

Roma-ji: Nezame tsutsu nagaki yo kana to iwareno ni iku aki satemo waga mi henuran
English Translation: Waking time and again,
what a long night, I murmur,
here on Iware Moor:
how many autumns like this
have I let my life pass by?
Meaning: Waking again and again and sighing what a long night it is, here on the moor of Iware, how many autumns have I spent this way?
Commentary: Autumn Poems 293

Headnote: "Autumn night in a cottage on the moor"
The topic is an autumn night spent in a dwelling on the moor. Waking again and again in the night, the poet finds himself saying what a long night it is; in this dwelling on Iware Moor, how many autumns has he passed like this? To the loneliness of waking in the long autumn nights he adds thoughts of the years gone by.
Iwareno plays on iware, being said, and Iwareno, a famous place in Yamato Province. Following the series on autumn dusk, time moves here to waking in the night.

First line, “nezame tsutsu”: tsutsu shows repetition, waking time after time in the night.
Second line, “nagaki yo kana to”: what a long night, the words of one lamenting the length of the night at each waking.
Third line, “iwareno ni”: iware is a pivot word joining iware, to be said, with the place name Iwareno, on the moor where these words come of themselves.
Fourth line, “iku aki satemo”: satemo means in that way, asking how many such autumns of waking have piled up.
Fifth line, “waga mi henuran”: nu is perfective and ran present conjecture, how many I must have passed, closing with thoughts of the years gone by.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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