Sode nurasu hagi no uwaba no tsuyu bakari mukashi wasurenu mushi no ne zo suru

English Translation

Wetting my sleeves,
like the dew on the upper leaves
of the bush clover,
never forgetting the past,
the voices of insects sound.

Meaning

As much as the dew on the upper leaves of the bush clover that wets my sleeves, the voices of insects that do not forget the past are sounding.

Commentary

Book Eight Lament Poems 784

Headnote: "Sent from Uji to Shin-Shōshō after Minamoto no Moroko of the Junior First Rank had passed away."
This is the tenth poem of the sequence remembering the dead through the things of autumn. It says that, as much as the dew on the upper leaves of the bush clover that wets his sleeves, the voices of insects that do not forget the past are sounding. According to the headnote, it was sent from Uji to Shin-Shōshō after Minamoto no Moroko of the Junior First Rank had died.
A son of Chancellor Fujiwara no Moromichi, the author served as regent, chancellor, and grand minister, and later took holy orders and was called Chisoku'in. "Minamoto no Moroko of the Junior First Rank" was the author's principal wife, a daughter of Minister of the Right Minamoto no Akifusa and the mother of Chancellor Fujiwara no Tadamichi and Kayanoin, Fujiwara no Yasuko. "Shin-Shōshō" is the name of a lady-in-waiting.
The scene is autumn after Moroko's death, set at Uji.
The direct occasion is mourning Moroko's death and sending a poem from Uji to Shin-Shōshō.
Uji lies south of the capital and was a place where many villas of the Fujiwara were built.

The first line, "sode nurasu," means "wetting the sleeves," and leads to the dew on the bush clover. As something that wets the sleeves, it suggests tears. Against "sode no yoso" in the preceding poem, 783, here the sleeves are wet.
In the second line, "hagi no uwaba no," "uwaba" is the upper leaves of a plant. Bush clover is the representative plant of autumn and has long been sung of as bearing dew.
In the third line, "tsuyu bakari," "bakari" shows degree, meaning "as much as the dew." The dew on the bush clover and the tears on the sleeves are laid over each other.
The fourth line, "mukashi wasurenu," means "not forgetting the past" when the dead one was alive. Following 782 and 783 of this book, the word "mukashi" is placed here again.
In the last line, "mushi no ne zo suru," "zo" is an emphatic binding particle, completed by the attributive "suru." Over the voices of insects crying without forgetting the past lies his own voice weeping in remembrance of the dead. The voices of insects join the poems of dew that have continued since 775 of this book, and the sequence remembering the dead through the things of autumn continues into the dew of Sagano in the next poem, 785.

Author

Fujiwara no Tadazane

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other