Koto no ha no naka o nakunaku tazunureba mukashi no hito ni aimitsuru kana - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

言の葉の中をなくなく尋ぬれば
昔の人に逢ひ見つるかな

Roma-ji: Koto no ha no naka o nakunaku tazunureba mukashi no hito ni aimitsuru kana
English Translation: Among the leaves of words
as I searched with many tears,
seeking all the while,
the one who lived long ago
I met and saw once again.
Meaning: As I searched in tears among the leaves of words, I came to meet again the one who lived long ago.
Commentary: Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems III 1729

Headnote: "Written at the end of a collection of poems by Tadamine and others that I gathered and presented when commanded to submit poems."
This is the second of the poems connected with the copying and compiling of poetry. As he searched in tears among the words of poems, he met again the one who lived long ago. According to the headnote, commanded to present poems, he gathered and presented poems by his father Tadamine and others, and wrote this at the end. It carries his longing for his late father as he gathered his poems.
The author, "Mibu no Tadami," was the son of Mibu no Tadamine. He is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets and is known for being matched against Taira no Kanemori on the topic of love at the Tentoku Palace Poetry Contest.
Mibu no Tadamine was one of the compilers of the Kokin Wakashū.

The first line, "koto no ha no," means the words of poems. Following the preceding poems on compiling and copying, it sings of gathering poems.
The second line, "naka o nakunaku," means "among them, weeping." It shows the sorrow of tracing his father's poems one by one.
The third line, "tazunureba," means "as I searched." "Ba" after the realis form marks a condition leading to the meeting in the lower verse.
The fourth line, "mukashi no hito ni," refers to his late father Tadamine, whose likeness he finds within the poems.
In the last line, "aimitsuru kana," "tsuru" is the attributive form of the perfective "tsu" and "kana" an exclamatory particle. The poem closes with his emotion at meeting his father again through poetry.
Author: Mibu no Tadami
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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