Tesusabi no hakanaki ato to mishikadomo nagaki katami ni narinikeru kana

English Translation

As idle scribbling,
as a trace of no account,
so I looked on it—
yet it has become a keepsake
that will last a long time.

Meaning

I looked on it as idle scribbling, a trace of no account—yet it has become a keepsake that will remain for a long time.

Commentary

Book Eight Lament Poems 805

Headnote: "Composed on finding a fan on which he had idly practiced writing, after Major Captain of the Right Michifusa had died."
This is the first poem of the sequence remembering the dead through their handwriting. It says that what she had looked on as a fleeting trace of idle writing has become a lasting keepsake. According to the headnote, after her husband, Major Captain of the Right Michifusa, died, she found a fan on which he had idly practiced writing and composed the poem.
A daughter of Minister of the Right Minamoto no Morofusa, the author became the wife of Fujiwara no Michifusa. "Major Captain of the Right Michifusa" is Fujiwara no Michifusa, son of Chancellor Fujiwara no Yorimichi, who became Major Captain of the Right Inner Palace Guards but died at twenty in Chōkyū 5 (1044).
The scene is the time after Michifusa's death, and the place is not recorded.
The direct occasion is finding the fan on which her late husband had practiced writing.

In the first line, "tesusabi no," "tesusabi" is something done idly with the hands, here idle practice in writing.
In the second line, "hakanaki ato to," "ato" is the brush trace. It says she had looked on it as aimless writing of no account.
In the third line, "mishikadomo," "shika" is the realis form of the past "ki" and "domo" is concessive, meaning "though I looked on it so."
The fourth line, "nagaki katami ni," means "into a keepsake that lasts long." "Hakanaki," fleeting, in the second line and "nagaki," long, form a pair.
In the last line, "narinikeru kana," "ni" marks completion and "keru" exclamation, meaning "it has become." It shows a reversal: the brush trace she thought fleeting has lasted long, while the man she thought would live long has died fleetingly. From the poems on seasonal things that ran to the preceding poem, 804, the keepsake here moves to the handwriting left by the dead, and the next poems, 806 and 807, also sing of handwriting.

Author

Daughter of Minamoto no Morofusa

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other