Omoioku hito no kokoro ni shitawarete tsuyu wakuru sode no kaerinuru kana

English Translation

Drawn back by the heart
of the one I left behind,
longing after me,
my sleeves that part the dewy grass
keep turning back toward home.

Meaning

Drawn by the longing heart of the one I left behind, my sleeves, parting the dewy grass, keep turning back toward home.

Commentary

Book Ten Travel Poems 988

Headnote: "Composed as a travel poem."
This is the fourth of the sequence that closes the book with thoughts of home and the capital. Drawn by the longing of the one left behind, the sleeves that part the dewy grass turn back toward home, the feeling of being pulled back after setting out. According to the headnote, it was composed as a travel poem.
No author is named, and the poem continues from the preceding one as a work of Saigyō. Saigyō, whose lay name was Satō Norikiyo, served Retired Emperor Toba as a guard of the Northern Quarter before taking holy orders, a poet of the late Heian period. He traveled throughout the provinces composing poems, and his personal collection is the Sankashū.
The scene is the road soon after setting out, on a path across dewy fields.
The direct occasion is composing on the topic of "travel."

The first line, "omoioku," means "who holds my heart behind." Like "omoi okitsu" in 934, it sings of a traveler who leaves his heart in the place he has left.
The second line, "hito no kokoro ni," means "by the heart of the one at home."
The third line, "shitawarete," means "longed after, held back." It shows him drawn by the thoughts of the one at home.
The fourth line, "tsuyu wakuru sode no," means "my sleeves that part the dew." A hypermetric line of eight syllables, it shows the traveler's sleeves as he presses across the dewy fields.
The last line, "kaerinuru kana," means "keep turning back." It lays together the sleeves fluttering back and the heart returning home. Where the preceding poem sings of a life that travels on even in old age, this poem sings of a heart whose sleeves return home even as he tries to press on, and like "nao furusato o kaerimiru" in 965, longing for home is shown again at the close of the book.

Author

Saigyō

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other