Wakareken nagori no sode mo kawakanu ni oki ya souran aki no yūtsuyu

English Translation

The sleeves of parting,
wet with its lingering grief,
have not yet dried—
does it settle on them too,
the dew of the autumn evening?

Meaning

Your sleeves have not yet dried from the lingering grief of parting with your child—does the autumn evening dew now settle upon them as well?

Commentary

Book Eight Lament Poems 780

Headnote: "To someone who had been left behind by a young child, in autumn."
This is the sixth poem of the sequence remembering the dead through the things of autumn, and the opening poem of an exchange. Thinking of one who has lost a child, it wonders whether the autumn evening dew settles on sleeves that have not yet dried from the lingering grief of parting. According to the headnote, it was sent in autumn to someone whose young child had died first.
The daughter of Fujiwara no Nobutaka and Murasaki Shikibu, the author became wet nurse to Emperor Go-Reizei and the wife of Takashina no Nariakira, Senior Assistant Governor-General of Dazaifu.
The scene is an autumn evening, and the place is not recorded.
The direct occasion is consoling someone whose young child had died.

In the first line, "wakareken," "ken" is past conjecture, meaning "you must have parted." It is a way of speaking that imagines the other person's situation.
In the second line, "nagori no sode mo," "nagori" is the feeling that remains after a parting. It says that the grief of parting with the child remains as tears wetting the sleeves.
In the third line, "kawakanu ni," "ni" means "though," leading into the fourth line, where dew is added to sleeves that have not dried.
In the fourth line, "oki ya souran," "ya" is an interrogative binding particle, completed by the attributive "ran." It means "does dew settle there as well?" on sleeves already wet with tears.
The last line, "aki no yūtsuyu," ends on a noun. Evening dew lies over the tears, saying that the season deepens the grief. Following "tsuyu no yadori" in the preceding poem, 779, it again sings of dew, and the next poem, 781, replies by taking up the fourth and last lines as "okisouru tsuyu."

Author

Fujiwara no Kenshi

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other