道芝の露にあらそふ我が身かな
いづれかまづは消えむとすらむ
いづれかまづは消えむとすらむ
- Roma-ji
-
Michishiba no tsuyu ni arasou waga mi kana izure ka mazu wa kiemu to su ramu
- English Translation
-
On the wayside grass
the dew and I contend
in our frailty;
which of us, I wonder, will
be the first to fade away?
- Meaning
- My life vies with the dew on the wayside grass in frailty; which of us, I wonder, will vanish first?
- Commentary
-
Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems III 1788
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the second of the poems on impermanence. His life vies in frailty with the dew on the wayside grass; which will vanish first, the dew or he? Through the dew he laments the frailty of a life that may end at any moment. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Seishin Kō," is Fujiwara no Saneyori. A son of Fujiwara no Tadahira, he rose to Chancellor and Regent. He was given the posthumous title Seishin Kō.
The first line, "michishiba no," is grass growing by the road, which adds frailty as grass trodden by passersby.
The second line, "tsuyu ni arasou," means "vying with the dew," setting the frailty of dew against the frailty of life.
In the third line, "waga mi kana," "kana" is exclamatory, and the poem pauses here.
The fourth line, "izure ka mazu wa," means "which of us first." "Ka" is a particle of question.
The last line, "kiemu to su ramu," closes the kakari-musubi of "ka" with the attributive form of the present conjectural "ramu." "Kiyu," to vanish, is an associated word for dew; taking up the preceding poem's question of when it will be his own turn, it asks which will go first, dew or self.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Saneyori
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
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