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English
Audio: NHK Creative Library
Read by LibriVox volunteer Larry Wilson.
Audio courtesy of LibriVox (Public Domain).
俊恵法師
夜もすがら
物思ふころは
明けやらで
閨のひまさへ
つれなかりけり
ねやのひま
さへつれな
かりけり
よも
- Poem 85
- 夜もすがら
物思ふころは
明けやらで
閨のひまさへ つれなかりけり
Author: Priest Shun'e (1113–death year unknown)
Source: Senzai Wakashū, Love
- English Verse Translation
- All through the never-ending night I lie awake and think; In vain I look to try and see The
daybreak's feeble blink Peep through the shutter's chink.
— William N. Porter, 1909
- Modern Translation
- All through the night, lost in thought, the dawn will not come. Even the crack of light through the bedroom door seems cold and distant.
- Commentary
- The headnote in the Senzai Wakashū reads, "composed as a poem on love" — this was a poem on an assigned topic. Shun'e wrote it from the perspective of a woman, worn out from waiting through an endless darkness, tormented by thoughts of an indifferent lover.
- About the Poet
- Priest Shun'e lost his father at seventeen and became a monk at Tōdai-ji Temple, famous for its Great Buddha. He later settled in Shirakawa, in Kyoto, where he invited many poets to a monastic retreat he called the Karin-en ("Poetry Grove"), hosting numerous poetry gatherings — many of the Hyakunin Isshu's own poets took part. Among his students was Kamo no Chōmei, author of An Account of My Hut (Hōjōki), who recorded many of Shun'e's teachings in his own critical work, the Mumyōshō.
- Priest Shun'e'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)
The night refuses to end.
Only my heart, waiting for you, quietly keeps counting the hours.Not even the light that announces dawn reaches me —
my longing alone is left behind in the dark.
- 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).