Wakareji wa itsu mo nageki no taesenu ni itodo kanashiki aki no yūgure

English Translation

On the parting road
never do the sighs of grief
cease at any time—
yet sadder still than ever
is this autumn evening.

Meaning

The road of parting is never free of sighs, yet this autumn evening makes it sadder still.

Commentary

Book Nine Parting Poems 874

Headnote: "Composed when giving a farewell to Sanekata Ason as he went down to the province of Mutsu."
This is the first poem of a sequence on autumn partings and the first of an exchange with Fujiwara no Sanekata. Parting always brings unending grief, the speaker says, but a parting on an autumn evening is sadder still. According to the headnote, it was composed at a farewell for Sanekata as he went down to Mutsu.
The author was a son of the regent Fujiwara no Michitaka, rose to Middle Counselor, and later served as Acting Governor-General of Dazaifu.
The scene is an autumn evening, and the place is the capital.
The direct occasion was the farewell given to Sanekata as he went down to Mutsu.
Sanekata was appointed governor of Mutsu in the first year of Chōtoku (995) and went down to the province. The next poem is Sanekata's reply.

The first line, "wakareji wa," is the same as the first line of the preceding poem. The two poems begin with the same word, and the grief of the parting road is sung twice in succession.
The second line, "itsu mo nageki no," means "always with grief," showing what parting always is.
The third line, "taesenu ni," means "though it never ceases," the conjunctive "ni" leading to something added to that constant grief.
The fourth line, "itodo kanashiki," means "sadder still." The adverb "itodo" shows fresh sorrow piled on the usual grief.
The last line, "aki no yūgure," ends on a noun, setting at the close the season and hour that deepen the sorrow. Where the earlier poems of parting speak of distance or reunion, here the mood of an autumn evening is added, and in the next poem Sanekata takes up this autumn in replying "aki no sasou o."

Author

Fujiwara no Takaie

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other