Hakanashi to iu ni mo itodo namida nomi kakaru kono yo o tanomikeru kana

English Translation

Even as I say
"how fleeting," all the more
only tears fall down—
such a world, tear-wet as this,
I had placed my trust in it.

Meaning

Even as I say "how fleeting," only tears fall all the more—and it was in such a world, wet with tears, that I had placed my trust.

Commentary

Book Eight Lament Poems 813

Headnote: "When my young child died."
This is the sixth poem of the sequence on grief at losing someone close, and the last poem of that sequence. It says that even as he calls the world fleeting only tears fall, and that he had placed his trust in such a world. According to the headnote, it was composed when his young child died.
A poet of the mid-Heian period, the author served as Governor of Chikuzen and in other posts. He is one of the Thirty-Six Later Poetic Immortals.
The scene is the time when his young child died, and the place is not recorded.
The direct occasion is the loss of his young child.

The first line, "hakanashi to," means "that it is fleeting." It places at the opening the putting into words of the fleetingness of the world.
In the second line, "iu ni mo itodo," "itodo" means "all the more." It says that even saying "fleeting" only deepens the grief.
In the third line, "namida nomi," "nomi" is restrictive, meaning "only tears."
In the fourth line, "kakaru kono yo o," "kakaru" is a pivot word meaning both for tears to fall upon something and "kakaru," such as this. It means "this world such as it is, on which tears fall."
In the last line, "tanomikeru kana," "keru" and "kana" are both exclamatory, meaning "I had placed my trust in it." It is the lament of one who realizes only now that, though he knew the world was fleeting, he had relied on his child's future. Following the laments for fathers and emperors that ran to the preceding poem, 812, the sequence on grief at losing someone close closes with a lament for a lost child.

Author

Minamoto no Michinari

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other