年ふればかくもありけり墨染めの
こは思ふてふそれかあらぬか
こは思ふてふそれかあらぬか
- Roma-ji
-
Toshi fureba kaku mo arikeri sumizome no ko wa omou chō sore ka aranu ka
- English Translation
-
As the years go by,
so it comes to be, I see—
in mourning black,
is this the one I loved, they say,
or is it someone else?
- Meaning
- As the years pass, so it turns out to be—this one in ink-black mourning, is she the one I am said to love, or is she not?
- Commentary
-
Book Eight Lament Poems 852
Headnote: "On seeing a Kōi consort who had come to him wearing mourning dress."
This is the fourth poem of the sequence of lament poems by poets of older times. It says that so it turns out as the years pass, and asks whether this one in ink-black mourning is the one he loved or not. According to the headnote, it was composed when the emperor saw a Kōi consort come before him in mourning dress.
A son of Emperor Uda, the author's reign was praised as the Engi era of good rule, and he ordered the compilation of the Kokin Wakashū. "Kōi" was one of the ranks of imperial consorts, next below Nyōgo.
The scene is the time when the Kōi consort came before him in mourning, set within the palace.
The direct occasion is seeing the Kōi consort in mourning.
In the first line, "toshi fureba," "fu" means for years to pass. "Ba" expresses a realized condition, meaning "as the years pass."
In the second line, "kaku mo arikeri," "keri" is exclamatory, meaning "so it turns out to be." The poem pauses after the second line.
In the third line, "sumizome no," "sumizome" is mourning dress dyed the color of ink.
In the fourth line, "ko wa omou chō," "ko" means "this, this person." "Chō" is a contraction of "to iu," meaning "said to be the one I love." It refers to one he once loved.
The last line, "sore ka aranu ka," means "is it she, or is it not?" Seeing the Kōi consort, once so bright in appearance, wrapped in mourning dress, he can hardly believe she is the same person. Following the preceding poem, 851, which recalled one who was lost, here the change in a person is seen through mourning dress.
- Author
- Emperor Daigo
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- The living are lost, the dead grow ever more in this world of ours— ah, until which day must I go on lamenting?
- "Is it a white pearl? What is it?" she asked me then— would that I had said "it is dew," and like the dew had vanished away myself.
- Unable to bear remembering the dead, where forget-grass grows thick about the house, here I have come to stay.
- How I regret it— "later we shall meet," I vowed, when I should have said "today is the very last," if only I had known.