頼めこし人だに訪はぬ故郷に
誰まつ虫の夜半に鳴くらむ
誰まつ虫の夜半に鳴くらむ
- Roma-ji
-
Tanomekoshi hito dani towanu furusato ni tare matsumushi no yowa ni nakuramu
- English Translation
-
In my old village,
where not even he who swore
he'd come now comes calling,
who does the pine cricket wait for,
crying in the dead of night?
- Meaning
- In the old village where even the one who promised to come no longer visits, whom can the pine cricket be waiting for, crying in the middle of the night?
- Commentary
-
Autumn Poems 250
Headnote: "Insects at an old village"
In an old village where even the one who promised to come no longer visits, the poet wonders whom the pine cricket can be waiting for as it cries at midnight. He overlays the loneliness of a village no one visits with the voice of the matsumushi, crying though there is no one to wait for.
The Ruijū text places this poem in the miscellaneous section. In the source text consulted, a character in line 2 is missing, and it has been read as towanu from the syllable count and the flow of the words.
Line 1, tanomekoshi, means "who led me to rely on him," referring to one who promised to come.
Line 2: dani means "even," showing that even the one who promised does not come.
Line 3, furusato, is a village long inhabited and now in decline. Following 208 and 221, it sings again of the loneliness of an old village.
Line 4: matsu is a pivot word meaning both "to wait" and the insect matsumushi, the pine cricket.
Line 5: the present conjectural ramu wonders why it cries at midnight. Following the night insects of the two preceding poems, this one sings of the pine cricket of an old village.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
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