Tsuyu o dani ima wa katami no fujigoromo ada ni mo sode o fuku arashi kana

English Translation

Even the dew, at least,
is now the keepsake left
on my mourning robe—
yet heedlessly on my sleeves
blows the storm wind all the same.

Meaning

Even the dew on my mourning robe is now, at least, my keepsake of my father—and yet the storm wind blows heedlessly across my sleeves.

Commentary

Book Eight Lament Poems 789

Headnote: "Composed on the topic 'Recalling the Past through the Wind,' in the autumn after my father Hidemune died."
This is the fifteenth poem of the sequence remembering the dead through the things of autumn. It says that the storm wind blows heedlessly across the sleeves of the mourning robe on which even the dew is now kept, at least, as a keepsake. According to the headnote, it was composed on the topic "Recalling the Past through the Wind" in the autumn after his father Hidemune died.
The son of Fujiwara no Hidemune, the author served Retired Emperor Go-Toba as a warrior of the Northern Guard and was also valued as a poet. He later took holy orders under the name Nyogan.
The scene is autumn in the year his father died, and the place is not recorded.
The direct occasion is composing on the topic "Recalling the Past through the Wind."

In the first line, "tsuyu o dani," "dani" means "at least." It shows the wish to keep the dew on the sleeves as a keepsake, if nothing more.
The second line, "ima wa katami no," means "now become a keepsake" of his late father, and modifies "fujigoromo" in the third line.
The third line, "fujigoromo," is the coarse robe worn in mourning. The dew on the sleeves suggests tears, and the poem says that only the tears on the sleeves of the mourning robe remain as a means of remembering his father.
In the fourth line, "ada ni mo sode o," "ada ni" means "heedlessly" or "to no purpose."
In the last line, "fuku arashi kana," "kana" is exclamatory. It shows resentment toward the storm wind that scatters even the dew of the keepsake. The "wind" of the topic becomes a storm wind, and "recalling the past" is entrusted to the dew as keepsake. Following the autumn wind of the preceding poem, 788, which lets neither dew nor tears remain, here too the wind scatters the dew. From the next poem, 790, poems of waking in the night and dreams follow.

Author

Fujiwara no Hideyoshi

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other