Utsuriken mukashi no kage ya nokoru tote miru ni omoi no masukagami kana

English Translation

Thinking the image
of old that it once held
might still remain,
I look, and grief only grows—
this clear mirror in my hands.

Meaning

Thinking that the image of old once reflected there might remain, I look—and my grief only grows, in this clear mirror.

Commentary

Book Eight Lament Poems 825

Headnote: "Composed when, after Lord Toshiyori had died, I had the mirror he always used made into an image of the Buddha."
This is the first poem of the sequence on using keepsakes for Buddhist rites. It says that when she looks to see whether the image of old once reflected there remains, the mirror only increases her grief. According to the headnote, after Minamoto no Toshiyori died, it was composed when she had the mirror he always looked into made into an image of the Buddha.
The author was a lady-in-waiting of the late Heian period. "Lord Toshiyori" is Minamoto no Toshiyori, son of Major Counselor Minamoto no Tsunenobu, who compiled the Kin'yō Wakashū.
The scene is the time after Toshiyori's death, and the place is not recorded.
The direct occasion is having the late Toshiyori's favorite mirror made into an image of the Buddha.

In the first line, "utsuriken," "ken" is past conjecture, meaning "that must have been reflected." She thinks of the mirror Toshiyori looked into every day.
In the second line, "mukashi no kage ya," "kage" means form or image. "Ya" is interrogative, meaning "whether the image of old."
In the third line, "nokoru tote," "tote" means "thinking that."
In the fourth line, "miru ni omoi no," "ni" means "when," giving "when I look, instead." "Omoi" is the grief of thinking of the dead.
In the last line, "masukagami kana," "masu" is a pivot word meaning both "masukagami," a clear mirror, and "masu," to increase, of grief. "Kana" is exclamatory. When she looks into the mirror seeking his image, only her own form is reflected, and her grief grows. It echoes 809 of this book, where a father's form is not mirrored in the depths of the water, in the lament of seeking an image that is not reflected. Like the toiletry box of 816 of this book, it is a poem of offering a keepsake to a Buddhist rite for the repose of the dead, and the next poem, 826, also uses keepsake letters for a Buddhist rite.

Author

Shin-Shōshō

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other