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Audio: NHK Creative Library
Read by LibriVox volunteer Larry Wilson.
Audio courtesy of LibriVox (Public Domain).
藤原敏行朝臣
住の江の
岸による波
よるさへや
夢のかよひ路
人目よくらむ
ゆめのかよ
ひちひとめ
よくらむ
す
- Poem 18
- 住の江の
岸による波
よるさへや
夢のかよひ路 人目よくらむ
Author: Fujiwara no Toshiyuki Ason (dates unknown–c. 901)
Source: Kokin Wakashū, Love
- English Verse Translation
- To-night on Sumi-no-ye beach The waves alone draw near; And, as we wander by the cliffs,
No prying eyes shall peer, No one shall dream we're here.
— William N. Porter, 1909
- Modern Translation
- Even in my dreams, I find myself longing to go to you along the path of dreams — but do I hide from others' eyes even in the night?
- Commentary
- This poem expresses the aching heart of a woman waiting for a lover who no longer visits her. At the time, it was believed that if your beloved appeared in your dreams, it was proof that they were thinking of you too. So for him not to appear even in her dreams made her feel that she was no longer loved at all — the poem expresses a hopeless loneliness that goes even beyond the reality of not being able to meet, rejection reaching into her dreams as well.
- About the Poet
- Fujiwara no Toshiyuki was renowned as a calligrapher. According to a tale in the Uji Shūi Monogatari, he was asked by many people to copy out the Lotus Sutra, but because he did so while impure — having eaten fish and been intimate with women — he fell into hell after death.
- Fujiwara no Toshiyuki Ason's Chart of the Heart
-
A chart and a modern-language reflection of the poet's inner feelings.
The Poet's Feelings (A Personal Interpretation)
You haven't come again today.
If only I could meet you, even in a dream.Every night I close my eyes,
only unanswered wishes pile up in my chest.
- Poem Illustration
-
This image is based on an illustration from William N. Porter's A Hundred Verses from Old Japan, his 1909 English translation of the Hyakunin Isshu published in England, colorized and reworked using Adobe Firefly (generative AI).