竹の葉にあられ降るなりさらさらに
独りは寝べき心地こそせね
独りは寝べき心地こそせね
- Roma-ji
-
Take no ha ni arare furu nari sarasara ni hitori wa nu beki kokochi koso sene
- English Translation
-
On the bamboo leaves
I hear the hail come falling,
rustling, sarasara —
never could I feel that I
might sleep through this night alone
- Meaning
- I hear hail falling on the bamboo leaves; at its rustling, sarasara, I feel I could never sleep alone tonight.
- Commentary
-
Book Eight Love Poems II 254
Headnote: "Composed upon hearing hail falling on the bamboo leaves in front of her house, as she waited anxiously for a man who had promised to come"
On a night spent waiting for a man who had promised to visit, the poet hears hail striking the bamboo leaves before her house. She turns the rustling "sarasara" of the hail into the adverb "sarasara ni" (never at all), expressing the loneliness of one who cannot bear to sleep alone and the ache of waiting.
The poem was chosen by Fujiwara no Teika for his anthology Teika Hachidaisho.
The first line, "take no ha ni" (on the bamboo leaves), is the same as the first line of 237 in this book; where that poem has dew settling on bamboo leaves, this one has hail beating on them.
The second line, "arare furu nari," uses the evidential "nari," inferring from sound that hail is falling, with a break after the second line.
The third line, "sarasara ni," overlays the sound of hail on the leaves with the adverb meaning "never," leading to the negative that follows.
The fourth line, "hitori wa nu beki," uses the attributive "beki" in a potential sense: that I could sleep alone.
The final line, "kokochi koso sene," forms a kakari-musubi of "koso" and the perfective negative "ne," ending with the firm statement that she feels no such thing.
- Author
- Izumi Shikibu
- Source
- Shika Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Mikarino no shibashi no koi wa samo araba are sorihatenuru ka yakatao no taka
- Next Poem
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Arifuru mo kurushikarikeri nagaraenu hito no kokoro o inochi tomo gana