Naki ato no omokage o nomi mi ni soete sa koso wa hito no koishikarurame

English Translation

Only the image
left behind by the one gone
close beside you—
how surely you must long
for that dear one, I know.

Meaning

With only the image of the one who is gone always close beside you, how deeply you must long for that person.

Commentary

Book Eight Lament Poems 837

Headnote: "Sent to someone who was grieving, having been left behind by another."
This is the second poem of the sequence on consoling those who mourn a death. It says that with only the image of the dead close by, the other must surely long for that person. According to the headnote, it was sent to someone grieving at being left behind by another's death.
The author's lay name was Satō Norikiyo; he had been a warrior of the Northern Guard under Retired Emperor Toba but took holy orders at twenty-three and traveled through the provinces composing poems.
The scene is the time when the recipient had lost someone, and the place is not recorded.
The direct occasion is consoling someone grieving at being left behind.

The first line, "naki ato no," means "after the death."
In the second line, "omokage o nomi," "omokage" is the image of the dead that rises in the mind. "Nomi" is restrictive, meaning "only the image."
The third line, "mi ni soete," means "keeping close beside you." It says that the person is gone and only the image is always near.
In the fourth line, "sa koso wa hito no," "sa koso" means "surely." "Koso" is an emphatic binding particle, completed by "rame" in the realis form in the last line. "Hito" refers to the one who grieves.
In the last line, "koishikarurame," "rame" is the realis form of the present conjecture "ran," meaning "you must long for them." It imagines the other's heart: the closer the image stays, the more one longs for the real person. Following the preceding poem, 836, which imagined the sorrow of one who set out on a visit, here too the poet imagines the heart of one left behind. The next poem, 838, is a poem about being reproached for not having called.

Author

Saigyō

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other