[52] あけ (Ake)

 Poem Meaning and Background

Depiction of Michinobu's poem by the artist Hokusai

あけぬれば・くるるものとは・しりながら
akenureba・kururu mono to wa・shiri nagara

なほうらめしき・あさぼらけかな

nao urameshiki・asaborake kana

〜藤原道信朝臣（Fujiwara no Michinobu Ason)

Translation

Though I know indeed

That the night will come again

After day has dawned,

Still, in truth, I hate the sight

Of the morning's coming light.

Meaning

The theme of this poem hinges heavily on the customs of nobility in the Heian Period. At that time, noblemen could only see their lovers at night, and they would have leave their lovers to return home in the morning. This poem was written as a 後朝の歌 (Kinuginu no uta; "the next morning poem"), which is a kind of poem that a man would leave with their lover the morning after they had spent the night together.  Though the poem itself contains no indication of what season it was written in, apparently the Goshūiwakashū, an imperial poetry anthology, includes a short explanation of the poem which notes that this poem was written on a snowy morning.

朝ぼらけ(asaborake) refers to dawn, specifically, the very early dawn when the sun is only just starting to light the sky, but it still remains quite dark. This is the time that men would have to leave their lovers. This time of day is also referenced in poems [64] Asaborakeu and [31] Asaborakea, both of which were also coincidentally written in the winter. 

Author

A depiction of the author and
his poem by the artist Agameishi

Fujiwara no Michinobu Ason (972 ~ 994) was the grandson of Kentokukō, also known as Fujiwara no Koremasa, author of poem [45] Aware. He was a talented poet, and some 48 of his poems are included in imperial anthologies. He died from illness at the young age of 23, but he also left behind a private collection of his own poems, known as the Michinobu-shū.