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Audio: NHK Creative Library
Read by LibriVox volunteer Larry Wilson.
Audio courtesy of LibriVox (Public Domain).
周防内侍
春の夜の
夢ばかりなる
手枕に
かひなく立たむ
名こそをしけれ
かひなくた
たむなこそ
をしけれ
はるの
- Poem 67
- 春の夜の
夢ばかりなる
手枕に
かひなく立たむ 名こそをしけれ
Author: Suō no Naishi (dates unknown)
Source: Senzai Wakashū, Miscellaneous
- English Verse Translation
- If I had made thy proffered arm A pillow for my head For but the moment's time, in which A
summer's dream had fled, What would the world have said?
— William N. Porter, 1909
- Modern Translation
- In the spring night, resting my head on an arm for just a brief dream — how I grieve that my name might spread for such a fleeting thing.
- Commentary
- One night, while people at the Nijō-in Palace were talking through the night, Suō no Naishi remarked that she was growing sleepy and wished she had a pillow. Major Counselor Fujiwara no Tadaie then quietly slipped his arm out from behind the blinds, offering, "Please, use this as your pillow." In response to this elegant gesture, Suō no Naishi composed this poem on the spot, gently declining his offer. Fujiwara no Tadaie, incidentally, was the great-grandfather of Fujiwara no Teika (Poem 97).
- About the Poet
- Suō no Naishi's court name comes from her father's post as Governor of Suō; her given name was Taira no Chūshi. She served four successive emperors — Go-Reizei, Go-Sanjō, Shirakawa, and Horikawa — and made her name as a court poet. Her talent was highly regarded, and thirty-five of her poems were selected for imperial anthologies from the Go Shūi Wakashū onward.
- Suō no Naishi'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)
If it's only a fleeting game,
like a dream on a spring night —I'd rather laugh it off gently
than let my name be ruined over something so brief.
- 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).