Kimi nakute yoru kata mo naki aoyagi no itodo ukiyo zo omoimidaruru

English Translation

Now you are gone,
there is nowhere I can lean—
like the green willow's
threads, in this sorrowful world
all the more my thoughts are tangled.

Meaning

With you gone, I have nowhere to lean, like threads of green willow with nothing to twist them; all the more, in this sorrowful world, my thoughts are tangled.

Commentary

Book Eight Lament Poems 847

Headnote: "Composed after Retired Emperor Horikawa had passed away."
This is the fourth poem of the sequence lamenting the deaths of those close. It says that with his lord gone he has nowhere to lean, like threads of green willow, and his thoughts are all the more tangled in this sorrowful world. According to the headnote, it was composed after Emperor Horikawa died.
The son of Minister of the Right Minamoto no Akifusa, the author rose to Provisional Middle Counselor and was active in the poetic circle of Emperor Horikawa. His elder sister Kenshi was Emperor Horikawa's mother, so the author was the emperor's uncle. "Horikawa'in" is Emperor Horikawa, who died in Kajō 2 (1107).
The scene is the time after Emperor Horikawa's death, and the place is not recorded.
The direct occasion is the death of Emperor Horikawa.

In the first line, "kimi nakute," "kimi" refers to the late Emperor Horikawa.
In the second line, "yoru kata mo naki," "yoru" is a pivot word meaning both "yoru," to lean on, and "yoru," to twist thread. To "with nowhere to lean for support" is added, through the threads of willow in the third line, the sense of twisting.
The third line, "aoyagi no," is the budding willow, whose slender branches are seen as threads, leading into "ito" in the fourth line.
In the fourth line, "itodo ukiyo zo," "itodo" means "all the more," and contains the sound of "ito," the threads of the green willow. "Zo" is an emphatic binding particle, completed by the attributive "midaruru" in the last line.
In the last line, "omoimidaruru," "midaru," to be troubled at heart, is overlaid with the willow threads tangled by the wind, making it a word associated with the green willow. Having lost his emperor and his support, his thoughts are tangled like threads. It strings together words of thread: "yoru," "aoyagi," "ito," and "midaruru." 797 of this book also mourns Emperor Horikawa; against the grief entrusted to the autumn wind there, here it is entrusted to the green willow of spring.

Author

Minamoto no Kunizane

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other