旅寝する夜床冴えつつ明けぬらし
とかたぞ鐘の声聞こゆなり
とかたぞ鐘の声聞こゆなり
- Roma-ji
-
Tabine suru yodoko saetsutsu akenu rashi tokata zo kane no koe kikoyu nari
- English Translation
-
On my traveler's bed
the night's covers chill and chill,
dawn must have broken:
far off it is, the voice
of a temple bell I hear
- Meaning
- The bed where I sleep on my journey grows colder and colder; dawn must have come, for from far away I hear the sound of a temple bell.
- Commentary
-
Book Four Winter Poems 269
The bed where the poet sleeps on a journey grows bitterly cold, and the distant sound of a bell tells that dawn must have broken. The loneliness and chill of sleeping on the road in winter are drawn through the sound of the bell at daybreak.
The author, Tsunenobu, is Minamoto no Tsunenobu. A son of Minamoto no Michikata, he rose to Major Counselor and was called the Katsura Counselor. In his last years he died at his post as Provisional Governor-General of Dazaifu. He was the father of the compiler, Minamoto no Toshiyori.
First line, 'tabine suru', means sleeping on a journey, setting a scene of winter travel.
Second line, 'yodoko saetsutsu', means the night bed growing cold, tsutsu expressing continuation.
Third line, 'akenu rashi', means dawn must have broken, using rashi, an inference grounded in evidence. The poem breaks after the third line.
Fourth line, 'tokata zo kane no', uses tokata, thought to mean the outside or the distance, with zo stressing that the sound comes from far away.
Final line, 'koe kikoyu nari', means the sound of the bell is heard, using nari, an inference from hearing, which gives the ground for the rashi of the third line.
- Author
- Minamoto no Tsunenobu
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
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