Quotes about sleepless nights

Juvenal Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis

c. AD 110 · Roman Empire · On life in a rented room in Rome, where the carts rumble all night

In this city it takes great wealth to get any sleep.

magnis opibus dormitur in urbe.

Satire 3

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Imru' al-Qais امرؤ القيس

earlier 6th century · pre-Islamic Arabia

A night like the waves of the sea let down its curtains on me with every kind of care, to try me.

وليل كموج البحر أرخى سدوله علي بأنواع الهموم ليبتلي

The Muallaqa, Divan of Imru' al-Qais

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Du Fu 杜甫

c. 762 · Tang China

When has a traveller's sleep ever come? The autumn sky will not grow light. I roll up the blind: the shadow of a setting moon. My pillow raised, the sound of the far river.

客睡何曾著，秋天不肯明。 卷簾殘月影，高枕遠江聲。

"A Traveller's Night," in the Complete Tang Poems

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Li Shangyin 李商隱

mid-9th century · Tang China · Chang'e is the woman said to have stolen her husband's elixir of immortality, fled to the moon, and lived there alone

On the mica screen the candle's shadow deepens; the long river of stars sinks slowly, the morning star goes down. Chang'e must regret stealing the elixir: blue sea, blue sky, and her heart, night after night.

雲母屏風燭影深，長河漸落曉星沈。 常娥應悔偷靈藥，碧海青天夜夜心。

"Chang'e," in the Complete Tang Poems

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The Mother of Michitsuna 藤原道綱母

955 · Heian Japan · A poem sent, pinned to a faded chrysanthemum, the morning after she refused to open the gate to a husband coming from another woman

Do you know how long it is, the time till dawn, on a night spent sighing and sleeping alone?

嘆きつつひとり寝る夜のあくるまはいかに久しきものとかは知る

Kagero Diary (Kagero nikki)

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Yi Jonyeon 李兆年

14th century (recorded in a songbook of 1728) · Goryeo Korea

The moon is white on the pear blossom and the Milky Way stands at the third watch. Could the cuckoo know the spring feeling in one branch? To feel so much is a kind of sickness too, and I cannot sleep.

梨花에 月白ᄒᆞ고 銀漢이 三更인 제 一枝 春心을 子規ㅣ야 아라마ᄂᆞᆫ 多情도 病이 냥ᄒᆞ여 ᄌᆞᆷ 못 드러 ᄒᆞ노라

"Dajeongga," in Cheonggu yeongeon (1728)

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Yi Sun-sin 李舜臣

c. 1595 · Joseon Korea · In camp on Hansan Island, in the war

On this land of water the autumn light is fading. Startled by the cold, the wild geese fly high in their ranks. A night of tossing and turning with a troubled heart. The waning moon shines on my bow and sword.

水國秋光暮 驚寒鴈陣高 憂心輾轉夜 殘月照弓刀

Yi Chungmugong jeonseo, book 1, "Chanted at Night on Hansan Island"

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William Shakespeare

published 1609 · England

Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed, The dear respose for limbs with travel tir'd; But then begins a journey in my head

Sonnet 27

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Miguel de Cervantes

1615 · Spain · Said when his master woke him in the middle of the night. Don Quixote answered that he had never heard Sancho speak so elegantly

Blessings on him who invented sleep, the cloak that covers all human thoughts, the food that takes away hunger, the water that chases off thirst, the fire that warms the cold, the cold that tempers the heat, and, in the end, the common coin with which everything is bought, the scale and weight that makes the shepherd equal to the king and the simple man to the wise.

Bien haya el que inventó el sueño, capa que cubre todos los humanos pensamientos, manjar que quita la hambre, agua que ahuyenta la sed, fuego que calienta el frío, frío que templa el ardor, y, finalmente, moneda general con que todas las cosas se compran, balanza y peso que iguala al pastor con el rey y al simple con el discreto.

Don Quixote, part 2, chapter 68, spoken by Sancho Panza

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Nalan Xingde 納蘭性德

1682 · Qing China · In an army tent on the road beyond Shanhai Pass, following the emperor

A watch of wind, a watch of snow, a clamour that breaks my homesick heart and lets no dream form. At home there is no such sound.

風一更，雪一更，聒碎鄉心夢不成，故園無此聲。

To the tune "Endless Longing"

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Nameless singers 蔓橫淸類 無名氏

before 1728 · Joseon Korea

Sigh, thin little sigh, through what crack do you get in? A lattice door, a slatted door, a sliding door, a swinging door, hinges male and female, hook and staple knocked in tight, the dragon-and-turtle lock fastened fast; do you fold like a screen and roll up like a scroll? Through what crack do you get in? Somehow, on the nights you come, I cannot sleep.

한숨아 셰한숨아 네 어ᄂᆡ 틈으로 드러온다 고모장ᄌᆞ 셰살장ᄌᆞ 가로다지 여다지에 암돌져귀 수돌져귀 ᄇᆡ목걸새 뚝닥 박고 龍 거북 ᄌᆞ물쇠로 수기수기 ᄎᆞ엿ᄂᆞᆫ듸 屛風이라 덜걱 져븐 簇子ㅣ라 ᄃᆡᄃᆡ글 ᄆᆞᆫ다 네 어ᄂᆡ 틈으로 드러온다 어인지 너 온 날 밤이면 ᄌᆞᆷ 못 드러 ᄒᆞ노라

A long sijo (saseol sijo), in Cheonggu yeongeon (1728)

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