Yosoetsutsu miredo tsuyu dani nagusamazu ika ni ka su beki nadeshiko no hana - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

よそへつつ見れどつゆだに慰まず
いかにかすべきなでしこの花

Roma-ji: Yosoetsutsu miredo tsuyu dani nagusamazu ika ni ka su beki nadeshiko no hana
English Translation: Though I look at them
and liken them to you, not a dewdrop's
worth is my heart consoled—
what am I to do with you,
little pinks, my cherished child?
Meaning: Though I look at these pinks and liken them to you, my heart is not consoled in the least—what am I to do with these pinks, my cherished child?
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 1494

Headnote: "Sent attached to pinks when Lesser Captain Yoshitaka had not come for a long time, while I was attending the Posthumous Empress at the Crown Prince's palace."
This is the twelfth poem of the sequence on summer. Though she looks at the pinks and likens them to her son, the poet says, she is not consoled in the least, and asks what she is to do. According to the headnote, while attending her daughter the Posthumous Empress at the Crown Prince's palace, she sent this attached to pinks when her son, Lesser Captain Yoshitaka, had not visited for a long time.
The author, "Princess Keishi," was the daughter of Prince Yoakira. She was the wife of Regent Fujiwara no Koretada and the mother of Yoshitaka and Kaishi.
The "Posthumous Empress" of the headnote is Koretada's daughter Kaishi, who became consort to Emperor Reizei, bore Emperor Kazan, and was granted imperial rank after her death. "Lesser Captain Yoshitaka" is Koretada's son Fujiwara no Yoshitaka, who became Lesser Captain of the Right Palace Guards but died young.

The first line, "yosoetsutsu," means "while likening." She looks at the pinks, likening them to the son she cannot see.
In the second line, "miredo tsuyu dani," "tsuyu" means "not in the least," playing on "tsuyu," dew, an associated word of the pink.
The third line, "nagusamazu," says the heart is not consoled, and the poem breaks after the third line.
The fourth line, "ika ni ka su beki," closes with the attributive form "beki" in response to the particle "ka." It laments, "what am I to do?"
The last line, "nadeshiko no hana," ends on a noun. "Nadeshiko" plays on "nadeshiko," the pink, and "nadeshi ko," a child caressed and cherished. The same flower as the pinks of the preceding poem is here overlaid with a mother's love for her son.
Author: Princess Keishi
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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