夜を重ね霜とともにしおきゐれば
ありしばかりの夢だにも見ず
ありしばかりの夢だにも見ず
- Roma-ji
-
Yo o kasane shimo to tomo ni shi okiireba arishi bakari no yume dani mo mizu
- English Translation
-
Night after night spent
lying awake as the frost
settles down with me,
I do not even dream
of you as once you were
- Meaning
- Night after night I lie awake as the frost settles with me, and so I cannot even dream of you as you once were.
- Commentary
-
Book Eight Love Poems II 261
Lying awake night after night with the frost, the poet cannot even dream of past meetings. The poem expresses the pain of a love that cannot meet in waking life and is denied even the comfort of dreams.
The first line, "yo o kasane" (night after night), shows sleepless nights following one another.
The second line, "shimo to tomo ni shi," intensifies "together with the frost" with the particle "shi."
The third line, "okiireba," is a pivot word joining frost settling and a person lying awake. It is the same pivot word as "okiiru tsuyu" in 246 of this book; where that poem took dew as a companion through an autumn night, this one stays up with the frost.
The fourth line, "arishi bakari no," means "such as when we once met."
The final line, "yume dani mo mizu," uses "dani" to lament that not even a dream comes. Whereas poems 193 and 194 of Book Seven found solace in meetings in dreams, here sleeplessness takes even that dream away.
- Source
- Shika Wakashu
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