Itazura ni suginishi koto ya nagekaremu ukegataki mi no yūgure no sora - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

いたづらに過ぎにしことや嘆かれむ
受けがたき身の夕暮の空

Roma-ji: Itazura ni suginishi koto ya nagekaremu ukegataki mi no yūgure no sora
English Translation: That I let them pass
all to no purpose—will this
be what I grieve for,
this self so hard to be granted,
beneath the sky at evening?
Meaning: Will I grieve that I have let my days pass in vain? So I think, gazing at the evening sky in this human form so hard to be granted.
Commentary: Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems III 1755

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed on the feeling of personal grievance."
This is the ninth of the poems on turning from the world and the second of three by Jien. Gazing at the evening sky in a human body so hard to receive, he cannot help grieving that he has let his time pass in vain. He entrusts to the evening sky his regret at having failed to make use of his human birth.
The author, "Former Archbishop Jien," is Jien. No author is named in the original; the attribution continues from the preceding poem. A son of Fujiwara no Tadamichi and younger brother of Kujō Kanezane, he served four times as Tendai abbot and wrote the historical treatise Gukanshō.

The first line, "itazura ni," means "in vain, to no purpose."
In the second line, "suginishi koto ya," "ya" is a particle of question. It refers to the days spent so far.
The third line, "nagekaremu," closes the kakari-musubi of "ya" with the attributive form of the conjectural "mu." "Re" is spontaneous, meaning he cannot help grieving, and the poem pauses here.
The fourth line, "ukegataki mi no," means "of this human form so hard to receive." It uses the same word "ukegataki" as Saigyō's poem 1751 in this book, drawing on Buddhist teaching.
The last line, "yūgure no sora," is the sky at the end of day, also suggesting the evening of life. Ending on a noun, it leaves as an afterimage the figure gazing at the sky with regret.
Author: Jien
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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