Yomogiu ni itsu ka okubeki tsuyu no mi wa kyō no yūgure asu no akebono

English Translation

On the weedy moor
when will it come to settle,
this dewdrop self?
The dusk of this very day,
or tomorrow's break of dawn?

Meaning

When will this self, fleeting as dew, come to be laid on the weed-grown moor—at dusk this very day, or at tomorrow's dawn?

Commentary

Book Eight Lament Poems 834

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On the heart of impermanence."
This is the fourth poem of the sequence on the heart of impermanence. It asks whether this dewdrop self, which must some day be laid on the weed-grown moor, will be laid there at dusk today or at tomorrow's dawn. The headnote continues from the preceding poem, a composition on "the heart of impermanence."
No author's name is given for this poem in the text, and it follows the author of the preceding poem. The author was the son of Chancellor Fujiwara no Tadamichi and served four times as head of the Tendai school.
The scene and place are not recorded.
The direct occasion is composing on the topic "the heart of impermanence."

In the first line, "yomogiu ni," "yomogiu" is wasteland overgrown with mugwort and other weeds. Here it calls to mind the moor where the dead are laid.
In the second line, "itsu ka okubeki," "oku" is a pivot word meaning both for dew to settle and for a body to be laid on the moor. "Itsu ka" is interrogative, meaning "when will it be laid?"
The third line, "tsuyu no mi wa," means "this self, fleeting as dew." The figure of dew, found since 757 of this book, is here applied to his own self.
The fourth line, "kyō no yūgure," means "at dusk today?"
The last line, "asu no akebono," ends on a noun. Setting side by side "dusk today" and "dawn tomorrow" in the fourth and last lines, it says that the hour of death is so near that one cannot tell whether it will be this evening or tomorrow morning. Where the preceding poem, 833, sang of the dream of the long night, this poem measures life in the tiny units of dusk and dawn, treating the same theme on a different scale.

Author

Jien

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other