Yoso naredo onaji kokoro zo kayoubeki tare mo omoi no hitotsu naraneba

English Translation

Though we live apart,
the same heart must pass between;
for with each of us
the grief we bear is not
the grief of one alone.

Meaning

Though we are separate people, the same heart must pass between us, for neither your grief nor mine is a sorrow borne by one alone.

Commentary

Book Eight Lament Poems 773

Headnote: "Sent to Lord Fujiwara no Tameyori when his wife had died, at a time when the woman I had lived with had also died."
This is the first poem of the sequence in which two men exchange the grief of losing a wife, and the opening poem of an exchange. It says that though they are separate, the same heart must pass between them, for grief is not something borne by one alone. According to the headnote, when the woman the author had lived with died, Fujiwara no Tameyori's wife also died, and this poem was sent to Tameyori.
Adopted by the author's grandfather Fujiwara no Saneyori, he inherited the Onomiya line, rose to Minister of the Right, and left the diary Shōyūki. "Lord Fujiwara no Tameyori" was a poet, a grandson of Fujiwara no Kanesuke and an uncle of Murasaki Shikibu.
The scene is the time when each of the two had lost a wife, and the place is not recorded.
The direct occasion is that Tameyori lost his wife at about the same time as the author.

In the first line, "yoso naredo," "yoso" means what is separate from oneself and outside one's concern. "Do" is concessive, opening with "though we are separate."
In the second line, "onaji kokoro zo," "zo" is an emphatic binding particle, completed by the attributive "beki" in the third line. It speaks of the same heart shared by men who have lost their wives.
In the third line, "kayoubeki," "beki" expresses what must naturally be, meaning "must pass between us." The poem pauses after the third line.
In the fourth line, "tare mo omoi no," "omoi" is the grief of thinking of the dead. "Tare mo" means both the author and Tameyori.
The last line, "hitotsu naraneba," means "since it is not one alone." Giving as its reason that he is not the only one who grieves, it leads back to the hearts passing between them in the upper verse. Through inversion, the reason is placed at the end. The next poem, 774, replies by turning this "hitotsu," one, into "hitori," one person.

Author

Fujiwara no Sanesuke

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other