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Japanese
English
Audio: NHK Creative Library
Read by LibriVox volunteer Larry Wilson.
Audio courtesy of LibriVox (Public Domain).
清少納言
夜をこめて
鳥のそらねは
はかるとも
よに逢坂の
関は許さじ
よにあふさ
かのせきは
ゆるさし
よを
- Poem 62
- 夜をこめて
鳥のそらねは
はかるとも
よに逢坂の 関は許さじ
Author: Sei Shōnagon (dates unknown)
Source: Go Shūi Wakashū, Miscellaneous
- English Verse Translation
- Too long to-night you've lingered here, And, though you imitate The crowing of a cock, 'twill
not Unlock the tollbar gate; Till daylight must you wait.
— William N. Porter, 1909
- Modern Translation
- Even if you try to fool me with a crowing rooster in the night — I will not open the Barrier of Ōsaka for you.
- Commentary
- One evening, Sei Shōnagon was deep in conversation with Fujiwara no Yukinari when he left before daybreak. In a letter the next morning, he explained that he had hurried off because he heard a rooster crow. Sei Shōnagon teasingly asked whether he meant the rooster of the Hangu Pass — referring to a Chinese legend in which a fugitive escaped through a border gate by having his men imitate a cock's crow to trick the guards into opening it before dawn. Yukinari replied that he meant the Barrier of Ōsaka instead. In response, Sei Shōnagon composed this poem, letting him know that she wouldn't be so easily fooled.
- About the Poet
- Sei Shōnagon was the great-granddaughter of Kiyohara no Fukayabu (Poem 36) and the daughter of Kiyohara no Motosuke (Poem 42). She served Empress Teishi, and is also known as the author of The Pillow Book (Makura no Sōshi), Japan's oldest surviving work of essay-style prose.
- Sei Shōnagon'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)
I brushed off
your hurried, dawn-breaking words.Words like that
were never going to win you a meeting with me.
- 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).