女郎花見るに心はなぐさまで
いとど昔の秋ぞ恋しき
いとど昔の秋ぞ恋しき
- Roma-ji
-
Ominaeshi miru ni kokoro wa nagusamade itodo mukashi no aki zo koishiki
- English Translation
-
Maidenflowers—
though I look, my heart
finds no comfort there,
and all the more I long
for the autumns of the past.
- Meaning
- Though I look upon the maidenflowers, my heart finds no comfort, and I long all the more for the autumns of the past.
- Commentary
-
Book Eight Lament Poems 782
Headnote: "On seeing maidenflowers after the mother of Ren'gikō had died."
This is the eighth poem of the sequence remembering the dead through the things of autumn. It says that looking at maidenflowers brings no comfort, and he longs all the more for the autumns of the past. According to the headnote, it was composed on seeing maidenflowers after the mother of Ren'gikō had died.
A son of Chancellor Fujiwara no Tadahira, the author served as chancellor, grand minister, and regent, and became the founder of the Onomiya line. Seishinkō is the posthumous name given to him after his death. "Ren'gikō" is the author's son Fujiwara no Yoritada, who rose to chancellor and grand minister. His mother, a daughter of Fujiwara no Tokihira, was the author's wife.
The scene is autumn after the death of Yoritada's mother, and the place is not recorded.
The direct occasion is seeing maidenflowers after his wife's death.
The first line, "ominaeshi," is one of the seven flowers of autumn; because its name contains "omina," woman, it has long been sung of in likeness to a woman. Here it calls to mind his late wife.
In the second line, "miru ni kokoro wa," "ni" means "on doing so." Looking at the flowers is set down as something that ought to comfort the heart.
In the third line, "nagusamade," "de" is a negative connective, meaning "without being comforted." The heart that ought to be eased by seeing flowers is not eased.
In the fourth line, "itodo mukashi no," "itodo" means "all the more." Seeing the flowers instead calls the past to mind.
In the last line, "aki zo koishiki," "zo" is an emphatic binding particle, completed by the attributive "koishiki." He longs for the autumns of the past when his wife was with him. Just as 768 of this book sang of a keepsake flower that only deepens grief, this is a grief for which flowers bring no comfort. From this poem the word "mukashi," the past, continues into the next poems, 783 and 784.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Saneyori
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Other
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- 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?
- With the settling dew that is added, I do not vanish as it does, but only in my tears float and sink in misery.
- As I lie awake, the sound of the wind that blows right through my body— in the past, far from my sleeves, I must have heard it unmoved.
- Wetting my sleeves, like the dew on the upper leaves of the bush clover, never forgetting the past, the voices of insects sound.