#240 All through the night I lie awake in thought—
| Size： | about 33×24 cm |
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| Dressing： | framed |
What kind of poem is this?
| verse: | yomosugara mono omo[u] koro wa akeyarade neya no hima sae tsurenakari keri |
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| (imho): | All through the night I lie awake in thought— Dawn never truly comes; even the narrow gap of my chamber seems cold and unfeeling. |
| poet: | Shunkei Hōshi |
| in: | before 1187 |
What is especially noteworthy: Although this poem is well-known as the context of the “Hyakunin-Isshu” selection, it was composed by a monk (hōshi, here Shunkei) who imagined himself adopting the persona of a woman calling out for her lover.
“Composed as a love-poem” — The curious arrangement in the Senzai Wakashū’s “Koi Ni” section
The Senzai Wakashū (an imperial anthology compiled by Fujiwara Shunzei) is known for distinctive treatment of theme-poems and kotobagaki (prefatory words) in its structure.
In the section “恋二” (“Love II”), there are six successive poems all listed under the same kotobashiraki: “恋歌とてよめる” (“read as a love-poem”).
It is quite uncommon even among other imperial anthologies that several poems under the same prefatory note are grouped together in this way; this grouping is one of the structural features of the Senzai Wakashū.
What makes it particularly interesting: all six of those poems were composed by men, and four of them were by monks. The fact that monks — who might be expected to be detached from romantic entanglement — are composing love-poems suggests that Shunzei saw in them a depth of emotion (“jō”) transcending ordinary romantic affair.
In that sense, the Senzai Wakashū’s spirit may be said to treat the very act of thinking or yearning (思う omou) as the essence of the poem, rather than the external reality of love alone.