古今集 609 - Mibu no Tadamine
命にもまさりて惜しくある物は見はてぬ夢の覚むるなりけり
There is something
causing more attachment, and
more difficult to renounce
than our own life - it’s to wake up
before the end of a dream.
新古今集 445 - Jien
鳴く鹿の声に目ざめてしのぶかな見はてぬ夢の秋の思ひ
It awakens me,
the crying voice of the deer -
it makes me long for
the past ; ah, these autumn thoughts
of an uncompleted dream…
新古今集 1326 - Daughter of Shunzei
つゆはらふねざめは秋のむかしにて見はてぬ夢にのこるおもかげ
I wipe out the dew
like I did in autumn, long ago -
waking up in the night
where I just saw you,
in this unfinished dream.
Mukai Chine (向井千子) (disciple of Matsuo Bashô, sister of Mukai Kyorai). She died at a young age ; this haiku was her death poem.
燃え易くまた消えやすき螢かな
just as easily as
she lights up, she fades out…
the firefly
Mukai Kyorai (向井去来) (disciple of Bashô)
手の上に悲しく消ゆる螢かな
on my hand
how sad it is to see her
fading, the firefly
1 : Minuma River at Omiya - Kawase Hasui, 1930.
2 : Fireflies at Ochanomizu - Kobayashi Kiyochika, 1880.
Notes
古今集 609
にも : I think that に is placed just in front of “life” for the comparison ; in the Grammar of Haruo Shirane, I think it’s the function “Standard of comparison”. The も seems to be a bound particle.
まさりて < まさる (勝る / 優る) : to surpass, to be superior to.
惜しく : ren’yôkei of the shiku adjective をし : hard to leave behind, causing attachment.
見はてぬ < 見果つ (みはつ) : to see entirely, to watch until the end. Mihate is the mizenkei of the verb ; nu is the rentaikei of the negative auxiliary verb zu.
覚むる < rentaikei of 覚む (さむ) : to wake up.
なりけり : copula nari (to be) + auxiliary verb keri for a feeling of surprise when the writer suddenly realises something.
The second part of the poem is literally “waking up from a dream we/I did not see completely // that we/I didn’t looked at until the end”. I preferred writing in the sense of “we” to give an universal meaning, if I wrote the translation only from the perspective of the poet, it would feel like this emotion only applies to him, when it’s really an universal one. And I’m sure that was also what Mibu no Tadamine wanted to express.
I was very surprised by the translation of Helen McCullough, who wrote something about a “dream where I encountered my love” ; I don’t see any part of the original text that indicates the subject of the dream.
新古今集 445
The honkadori of this poem is the 609th of the Kokinshû that I placed first on the list.
目ざめて < 目覚める (めざめる) : to wake up.
しのぶ : to think about something in a nostalgic way, to yearn/long for something.
新古今集 1326
This poem has two honkadori : the 771th of the Gosenshû, and the KKS 609, just like the SKKS 445.
つゆ (露) : the dew ; but it’s also a metaphor for the tears.
はらふ : to remove, to sweep clean.
ねざめ < 寝覚め : I’ve read in the book of Haruo Shirane that it means “awakening from sleep, especially before dawn or at night”. The poem talks about the dew ; I guess we can’t be sure of the exact moment that it’s referring to.
にて : I think it’s a case particle who indicates “time” in this poem (mukashi).
秋 : the first meaning is “autumn” but it’s also a metaphor for the period where the lover of the poetess started to lose his feeling for her.
のこる (残る) : to remain.
おもかげ (面影) : image floating in the mind, illusion. In his dictionary, at the definition “image that floats in the mind”, Haruo Shirane writes that it can be the image of a face, for example (easier to remember if we think about the kanji 面). I’ve read in the book of Laurel Rasplica Rodd that the subject of this waka is “forgotten love”. So when we know the subject before reading the poem, it’s easier to understand.
Mukai Chine’s haiku
燃え < 燃ゆ : もゆ : to burn.
易く < やすい : easy. I love this kanji because of the mnemonic “a wing to fly easily towards the sun”. Japanese is the only language that gives me every time this feeling of excitement, discovery and imagination, even for basic words like this one.
また : in the same way.
消え < 消ゆ : きゆ : to fade, to die, to go out, to disappear.
螢 : firefly. I also love this kanji, I guess the most common is 蛍 but I like 螢 because of the two little flames.
Mukai Kyorai’s haiku
悲しく < 悲しい : sad, sorrowful, painful.
きゆる < 消ゆ : きゆ : to fade, to die, to go out, to disappear.
You can read additional informations and an other translation of these 2 haiku on this website and in this book, Japanese Death Poems.
These 2 haiku are so touching, I really love them, already among my favorite poems. I guess they were very close as brother and sister.