葦引の山下水に影見れば
眉白妙に我老いにけり
眉白妙に我老いにけり
- Roma-ji
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Ashihiki no yamashita mizu ni kage mireba mayu shirotae ni ware oinikeri
- English Translation
-
In the mountain stream
flowing at the foot of hills
I see my image—
my eyebrows white as mulberry cloth,
I have grown old, I find.
- Meaning
- When I look at my reflection in the stream at the mountain's foot, my eyebrows have turned as white as bleached cloth; I have grown old.
- Commentary
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Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems III 1710
Headnote: "Composed on scooping up mountain water in my hands."
This is the second of the poems lamenting old age. Looking at his reflection in the water flowing below the mountain, he finds even his eyebrows turned white and realizes he has grown old. According to the headnote, it was composed as he scooped up mountain water in his hands, and it carries his surprise at unexpectedly discovering his age in the reflection.
The author, "Nōin Hōshi," is Nōin. His lay name was Tachibana no Nagayasu, and he took the tonsure while young. He traveled the provinces visiting famous poetic places and wrote the poetic treatise Nōin Utamakura.
The first line, "ashihiki no," is a pillow word for "mountain."
The second line, "yamashita mizu ni," is water flowing at the mountain's foot, the water he scooped up in the headnote.
In the third line, "kage mireba," "kage" is his own reflection in the water. Following the pine's reflection in the preceding poem, here he sees his own reflection.
The fourth line, "mayu shirotae ni," means "eyebrows white as bleached cloth." That he finds his age in the whiteness not of his hair but of his eyebrows gives the surprise its reality.
In the last line, "ware oinikeri," "keri" expresses realization. Echoing the first line of the preceding poem, "oinikeru," it closes the pair of poems on old age.
- Author
- Nōin
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Oinikeru nagisa no matsu no fukamidori shizumeru kage o yoso ni ya wa miru
- Next Poem
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Nare miteshi hana no tamoto o uchikaeshi nori no koromo o tachi zo kaetsuru