Omoiizuru ori taku shiba no yūkeburi musebu mo ureshi wasuregatami ni

English Translation

Remembering,
I break and burn the brushwood—
the evening smoke;
to choke on it is gladness,
a keepsake not to forget.

Meaning

At the moment I recall the one who is gone, brushwood is broken and burned, and its evening smoke rises; even choking on it is a gladness, for it is a keepsake that will not let me forget.

Commentary

Book Eight Lament Poems 801

Headnote: "One of many poems on impermanence composed and sent in the tenth month of the following year, after I had sent to Former Archbishop Jien such words as 'wet with the autumn showers' while I was at Minase around the tenth month."
This is the second poem of the sequence remembering the dead through the things of winter, and the opening poem of an exchange. It says that even choking on the evening smoke of brushwood broken and burned at a moment of remembrance is a gladness, since it is a keepsake against forgetting. According to the headnote, while at Minase around the tenth month he sent Jien such words as "wet with the autumn showers," and in the tenth month of the following year he composed many poems on impermanence and sent them to Jien; this is one of them.
A son of Emperor Takakura, the author governed as retired emperor after abdicating and ordered the compilation of the Shin Kokin Wakashū. "Former Archbishop Jien" was the son of Chancellor Fujiwara no Tadamichi and served four times as head of the Tendai school.
The scene is an evening in the tenth month, and the place is not recorded.
The direct occasion is sending many poems on impermanence in the tenth month, following the words sent to Jien from Minase in the tenth month of the year before.
Minase lies along the Minase River in Settsu Province, where the author built a detached palace.

The first line, "omoiizuru," means "recalling the one who is gone," and modifies "ori" in the second line.
In the second line, "ori taku shiba no," "ori" is a pivot word meaning both "ori," the moment of recalling, and "ori," breaking brushwood to burn. "Taku" means to burn in a fire.
The third line, "yūkeburi," is the smoke of brushwood burned at evening. The rising smoke also calls to mind the smoke of cremation.
The fourth line, "musebu mo ureshi," means "even choking on it is a gladness." In "musebu," to choke on smoke is laid over to be choked with tears. The poem pauses after the fourth line.
The last line, "wasuregatami ni," means "as a keepsake against forgetting." Through inversion, the reason why choking is a gladness is placed at the end. Following the single autumn leaf of the preceding poem, 800, the evening smoke of burning brushwood here becomes a keepsake. The next poem, 802, replies by taking up "omoiizuru ori taku shiba" as it is.

Author

Go-Toba In

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other