Ayamegusa tare shinobe to ka ueokite yomogi ga moto no tsuyu to kieken

English Translation

This iris plant—
for whom to remember by
was it set in earth,
before vanishing like dew
beneath the mugwort's roots?

Meaning

For whom to remember it by did the child plant this iris, before vanishing like the dew at the roots of the mugwort?

Commentary

Book Eight Lament Poems 769

Headnote: "Composed on seeing an iris that a young child who had died had planted."
This is the second poem of the sequence remembering the dead through the things of summer. It asks for whom to remember it by the young child planted the iris, before vanishing like the dew at the roots of the mugwort. According to the headnote, it was composed on seeing an iris planted by a young child who had died.
The author was a lady-in-waiting of the late Heian period who served Kayanoin, Fujiwara no Yasuko, empress of Retired Emperor Toba.
The scene is summer, when the iris grows, set in the garden where the child planted it.
The direct occasion is seeing the iris planted by the young child who had died.
The iris was a plant used to ward off evil at the Boys' Festival on the fifth day of the fifth month, when it was laid on the eaves of houses and used in other ways.

The first line, "ayamegusa," is the iris. The plant used at the festival of the fifth day of the fifth month is set at the opening as something the child planted.
The second line, "tare shinobe to ka," means "for whom to remember it by?" "Ka" in "to ka" is an interrogative binding particle, completed by "ken" in the last line.
The third line, "ueokite," means "having planted it." The headnote of the preceding poem, 768, also has "ueokite," and the two poems stand side by side in singing of plants set in the ground by the dead as keepsakes.
In the fourth line, "yomogi ga moto no," "yomogi ga moto" is the foot of thickly growing mugwort, evoking neglected ground.
The last line, "tsuyu to kieken," means "must have vanished like dew." "Ken" is past conjecture, closing in the attributive form in response to "ka" in the second line. It likens the fleeting death of the young child to dew, contrasting it with the life of the iris left behind. As with the dew in the opening poem, 757, dew here too expresses the fragility of life. The next poem, 770, also longs for the past through the iris of the fifth month.

Author

Kayanoin no Yūshide

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other