Kurenu ma no mi o ba omowade hito no yo no aware o shiru zo katsu wa hakanaki

English Translation

Not thinking of myself,
who lasts but until the dusk,
to come to know
the sorrow of the human world—
that, too, is fleeting.

Meaning

Heedless of my own self, which lasts only until the day grows dark, I come to know the sorrow of the human world—and that knowing is itself fleeting.

Commentary

Book Eight Lament Poems 856

Headnote: "Sent to someone connected to a person who had died, on finding that person's letter among my things."
This is the second poem of the sequence of lament poems by poets of the mid-Heian period that brings the book to a close, and the last poem of Book Eight, Lament Poems. It says that to know the sorrow of the human world while heedless of one's own self, which lasts only until dusk, is itself fleeting. According to the headnote, it was sent to someone connected to a person who had died, when the poet found that person's letter among her things.
A daughter of Fujiwara no Tametoki, the author served Jōtōmon'in and wrote The Tale of Genji.
The scene is the time when she found the letter of the dead, and the place is not recorded.
The direct occasion is finding the letter of one who had died.

The first line, "kurenu ma no," means "while the day has not yet grown dark." It likens the shortness of human life to the brief time before dusk.
In the second line, "mi o ba omowade," "de" is a negative connective, meaning "without thinking of myself." It describes failing to reflect that one's own life also lasts only until dusk.
The third line, "hito no yo no," means "of the human world," and modifies "aware" in the fourth line.
In the fourth line, "aware o shiru zo," "aware" is the sorrow surrounding someone's death. "Zo" is an emphatic binding particle, completed by the attributive "hakanaki" in the last line. It speaks of coming to know the sorrow of the human world on seeing the letter of the dead.
In the last line, "katsu wa hakanaki," "katsu wa" means "at the same time, also." Since the one who grieves a death is herself only a being that lasts until dusk, even knowing that sorrow is fleeting. The poem gazes at the fact that the one who mourns is also mortal. Where the opening poem of the book, 757, saw the dew on the leaf tips and the drops at the roots as an example of people left behind and going first, this closing poem ends by saying that those who mourn the ones gone first are themselves beings that last only until dusk, so that the principle of impermanence, of being left behind and going first, answers between the beginning and the end of the book.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other