Karenikeru aoi nomi koso kanashikere aware to mizu ya kamo no mizugaki - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

かれにけるあふひのみこそ悲しけれ
あはれと見ずや賀茂の瑞垣

Roma-ji: Karenikeru aoi nomi koso kanashikere aware to mizu ya kamo no mizugaki
English Translation: It is only this,
the withered hollyhock, our days
of meeting, that grieves;
do you not look on with pity,
sacred fence of Kamo shrine?
Meaning: All that grieves me is the withered hollyhock, our days of meeting now gone. O sacred fence of Kamo, do you not look upon this with pity?
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 1255

Headnote: "Reply."
This is the eighth poem of the sequence of exchanges among members of the court, a reply to the preceding poem. Only the withered hollyhock, the days of meeting now broken off, are sad, she answers; does the sacred fence of Kamo not look on with pity?
The author is given as "Anonymous," and the name has not come down to us. She is the woman to whom Fujiwara no Sanekata sent the preceding poem.

In the first line, "karenikeru," "kare" is a pivot word meaning both the hollyhock's "withering" and the lovers "drawing apart." It is the same pivot word as in 1244 and 1245, lamenting a relationship that is slipping away.
The second line, "aoi nomi koso," takes up "aoi" from the preceding poem, playing on both hollyhock and day of meeting. "Koso" is answered by the perfective form "kanashikere" in the third line.
The third line, "kanashikere," brings the poem to a break.
In the fourth line, "aware to mizu ya," "ya" is interrogative or rhetorical: "do you not look on with pity?"
The last line, "kamo no mizugaki," ends on a noun as an address. Taking up the god hidden in "sono kami" in the preceding poem, she appeals to the sacred fence of the Kamo god to look with pity on their withered bond.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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