Kaerikomu hodo omou ni mo takekuma no matsu waga mi koso itaku oinure

English Translation

When I think how long
till the day you will return,
like the Takekuma
pine, I wait—and it is I
who have grown so very old.

Meaning

When I think of how long it will be until you return, it is I, waiting like the pine of Takekuma, who have grown so very old.

Commentary

Book Nine Parting Poems 878

Headnote: "When Motoyori Ason, governor of Mutsu, wrote that we had not met for a long time but said nothing of when he would come up to the capital."
This is the second poem of the sequence on partings from provincial governors. Since the governor of Mutsu has not said when he will return, the speaker, waiting like the pine of Takekuma, has grown very old. According to the headnote, it was composed when Motoyori, governor of Mutsu, wrote that they had long been apart but gave no word of when he would come up to the capital.
The author was a son of Minister of the Right Fujiwara no Toshiie; not favored in rank, he served as judge of poetry contests and became the teacher of Fujiwara no Shunzei.
The scene is the time when Motoyori was at his post in Mutsu, and the place is the capital.
The direct occasion was a letter from Motoyori, governor of Mutsu, saying they had long been apart but not telling when he would come to the capital.
"Motoyori Ason" in the headnote is the person then serving at his post as governor of Mutsu. The pine of Takekuma is a poetic place in Mutsu, in present-day Iwanuma in Miyagi Prefecture, known as a pine that divides into two trunks from the base.

The first line, "kaerikomu," means "when you will return," thinking of the time Motoyori comes back to the capital.
The second line, "hodo omou ni mo," means "even as I think of that time." It shows his feelings toward one who will not say when he will come.
The third line, "takekuma no," is a poetic place in Mutsu, chosen for Motoyori's post. It leads into "matsu" that follows.
In the fourth line, "matsu waga mi koso," "matsu" plays on the pine of Takekuma and "to wait." The particle "koso" singles out the speaker himself.
The last line, "itaku oinure," means "I have grown very old," closing in "nure," the perfective form of the perfective auxiliary "nu," in response to "koso." Though the pine is a symbol of long life, the one who waits has instead grown old, a reversal. Where the preceding poem, from the one seeing off, entrusts the time until reunion to the moon, this poem speaks of the aging of the one who waits for the return, and it echoes 867, another parting from a governor of Mutsu that laments how little life remains.

Author

Fujiwara no Mototoshi

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other