Sleeping Alone: Poem Number 3

This is one of my favorite poems as of late:

Japanese	Romanization	Translation
あしびきの	Ashibiki no	Must I sleep alone
山鳥の尾の	Yamadori no ō no	through the long autumn nights,
しだり尾の	Shidari no ō no	long like the dragging tail
ながながし夜を	naga nagashi yo wo	of the mountain pheasant
ひとりかもねむ	hitori kamo nen	separated from his dove?

The author of this poem Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (柿本人麻呂, dates unknown), was one of the pre-eminent poets of the Asuka Period in Japan, and contributed to the Manyoshu anthology as well. According to my new book, he served in the courts of emperors Tenmu, Jitō (poem 2), and Monmu as a kind of “court poet” (kyūtei-kajin, 宮廷歌人). During official outings, or former occasions, the court poet was relied upon to compose a fitting poem for the occasion. So revered was Hitomaro at his job that he, alongside his contemporary Yamabe no Akahito (poem 4), were later called kasei (歌聖, “saints of poetry”).

Hitomaro is also possible candidate for authorship of the famous iroha poem: a poem that uses every hiragana letter only once.

While the poem above looks like any other love poem, the composition, imagery, rhythm and such, make this one really stand out. 😁

The yamadori (山鳥) is actually a species of bird called the Copper Pheasant, known for its long tail, and is our featured photo for today (photo by KKPCW, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons). There’s a great photo here as well. Traditionally, it was thought that the male and female birds slept separately at night, hence Hitomaro was comparing this to his own feeling of loneliness.

One thing I like about this poem, and why I have a particular interest in it, is the repetitive sounds using の (no) throughout. If you recite the poem out loud, it has a particularly nice rhythm to it, and for me it is thus easy to memorize/recite. Try it out and you’ll see what I mean. The frequent use of の also links various words together in a way that stretches out the verse. Thus, Hitomaro isn’t sleeping alone, it feels like a looooooong night alone.

According to the Hyakunin Isshu Daijiten, there are certain birds in Japanese culture that are frequently used to represent autumn. In addition to the Copper Pheasant, other birds include:

• The wild goose (kari, 雁)
• The quail (uzura, うずら)
• The bull-headed shrike, or Lanius bucephalus (mozu, もず)

More on seasonal birds in this post.

The opening verse of this poem is also a nice example of pillow words in the Hyakunin Isshu, originally taken from the Manyoshu.

Finally, one thing to note is that my new book about the Hyakunin Isshu suggests the authorship of this poem is doubtful. In the original Manyoshu anthology, this poem was listed as “author unknown”, poem number 2802, and looked noticeably different:

Original Manyogana	Modern Japanese	Romanization	Rough Translation1
念友	思へども	Omoedomo	Even as I try not to think about it,
念毛金津	思ひもかねつ	Omoi mo kanetsu	I can’t help but think
足桧之	あしひきの	Ashihiki no	how long this night will
山鳥尾之	山鳥の尾の	Yamadori no ō no	be, like the tail of a
永此夜乎	長きこの夜を	Nagaki kono yo wo	copper pheasant.

… but by the time of Fujiwara no Teika (poem 97, こぬ) who compiled the Hyakunin Isshu, it was probably assumed to be Hitomaro. Teika might know something we don’t today though, so it’s quite possibly Hitomaro’s poem, but sadly we’ll never know for sure. But this mystery of how the poem came to be will be covered in a future post someday.