Sumizome no sode wa sora ni mo kasanaku ni shibori mo aezu tsuyu zo koboruru

English Translation

My ink-black sleeves
I have lent to no sky above,
and yet I cannot
wring them dry enough—
the dew keeps spilling down.

Meaning

Though I have not lent my ink-black mourning sleeves to the sky, I cannot wring them dry enough, and the dew keeps spilling down.

Commentary

Book Eight Lament Poems 855

Headnote: "Composed on the seventh day of the seventh month, after my mother the consort had passed away."
This is the first poem of the sequence of lament poems by poets of the mid-Heian period that brings the book to a close. It says that though his ink-black sleeves have not been lent to the sky, dew spills from them past all wringing. According to the headnote, it was composed on the seventh day of the seventh month after his mother, a consort, had died.
A son of Emperor Murakami, the author served as Minister of Central Affairs and was called the Later Prince of Central Affairs. He excelled in Chinese and Japanese poetry. His "mother the consort" is Princess Shōshi, a consort of Emperor Murakami.
The scene is the seventh day of the seventh month after his mother's death, and the place is not recorded.
The direct occasion is the coming of the Tanabata festival after the death of his mother.
Tanabata, the seventh day of the seventh month, was held to be the night when the two stars, the Herdsman and the Weaver, meet once a year, and it was customary on this day to lend robes to the two stars, that is, to offer robes to them.

In the first line, "sumizome no," "sumizome" is mourning dress dyed the color of ink.
In the second line, "sode wa sora ni mo," "sora" is the heaven where the two stars of Tanabata dwell. It draws on the custom of offering robes at Tanabata.
In the third line, "kasanaku ni," "naku ni" means "though not," meaning "though I have not lent them to the stars." Robes lent to the two stars were thought to be wet with the dew of their meeting, but his mourning robe is wet though he has not lent it at all.
In the fourth line, "shibori mo aezu," "aezu" means "cannot manage to." It means "I wring them, yet cannot wring them dry."
In the last line, "tsuyu zo koboruru," "tsuyu," dew, stands for tears. "Zo" is an emphatic binding particle, completed by the attributive "koboruru." Even on the bright festival of Tanabata, his mourning sleeves overflow with tears for his mother. 777 of this book is also a poem remembering a late empress on the seventh day of the seventh month, and it echoes that poem in remembering the dead on the Tanabata festival. Following the poems by poets of older times that ran to the preceding poem, 854, poems by mid-Heian poets are set toward the end of the book.

Author

Prince Tomohira

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other