Hyakunin Isshu (One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each): Poem 52 (Fujiwara no Michinobu)

Hyakunin Isshu, Poem 52

Translation and comments by Ad Blankestijn
(version September 2022)

though I know
it will become night again
after it has dawned -
still, how hateful it is,
 the first faint light of day!

akenureba
kururu mono to wa
shiri nagara
nao urameshiki
asaborake kana
    

明けぬれば
暮るるものとは
知りながら
なをうらめしき
あさぼらけかな

Fujiwara no Michinobu 藤原道信 (972-974)

 
[Dawn on Mt Fuji]

The head note in the Goshuishu identifies this poem as a "morning after" poem (kinuginu no uta), "sent to a woman after returning from her chambers on a snowy day." The snow, however, is not directly mentioned in the poem.

Notes

akenureba: "nure" points at the perfect tense, "-ba" at a realized condition. "yo ga akete shimau to."
kururu mono to ha: the unexpressed sense is "when it gets dark, I can again meet you."
shirinagara: "-nagara" is here a contradictory conduction, "though I know".
nao: "sore de mo nao," nevertheless.
asaborake: break of day, the first light of dawn. The moment the man would have to leave the chambers of the woman with whom he has spent the night.

The Poet

Lord (Ason) Fujiwara no Michinobu was a son of the statesman Fujiwara Tamemitsu and adopted by the latter's brother Kaneie, who held the high office of chancellor. Michinobu served as commander of the guard but died young at the age of only 23. Forty-eight of his poems were included in imperial anthologies. His private collection of poems is also extant.

References: Pictures of the Heart, The Hyakunin Isshu in Word and Image by Joshua S. Mostow (University of Hawai'i Press, 1996); One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each, by Peter MacMIllan (Penguin Classics); Traditional Japanese Poetry, An Anthology, by Steven D. Carter (Stanford University Press, 1991); Hyakunin Isshu by Inoue Muneo, etc. (Shinchosha, 1990); Genshoku Hyakunin Isshu by Suzuki Hideo, etc. (Buneido, 1997); Chishiki Zero kara no Hyakunin Isshu, by Ariyoshi Tamotsu (Gentosha); Hyakunin Isshu Kaibo Zukan, by Tani Tomoko (X-Knowledge);  Ogura Hyakunin Isshu at Japanese Text Initiative (University of Virginia Library Etext Center); Hyakunin Isshu wo aruku by Shimaoka Shin (Kofusha Shuppan); Hyakunin Isshu, Ocho waka kara chusei waka e by Inoue Muneo (Chikuma Shoin, 2004); Basho's Haiku (2 vols) by Toshiharu Oseko (Maruzen, 1990); The Ise Stories by Joshua S. Mostow and Royall Tyler (University of Hawai'i Press, 2010); Kokin Wakashu, The First Imperial Anthology of Japanese Poetry by Helen Craig McCullough (Stanford University Press, 1985); Kokinshu, A Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern by Laurel Rasplica Rodd and Mary Catherine Henkenius (University of Tokyo Press, 1984); Kokin Wakashu (Shogakkan, 1994); Shinkokin Wakashu (Shogakkan, 1995); Taketori Monogatari-Ise Monogatari-Yamato Monogatari-Heichu Monogatari (Shogakkan, 1994).


    Photos: Wikimedia Commons

    Hyakunin Isshu Index