年を経て憂き影をのみみたらしの
変はる世もなき身をいかにせん
変はる世もなき身をいかにせん
- Roma-ji
-
Toshi o hete uki kage o nomi Mitarashi no kawaru yo mo naki mi o ika ni sen
- English Translation
-
Through the passing years
only my sorrowful form
have I seen in Mitarashi;
with no change to come in life,
what am I to do with myself?
- Meaning
- For years I have seen only my sorrowful reflection in the Mitarashi stream; what am I to do with myself, whose lot never changes?
- Commentary
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Book Nineteen Poems on the Gods 1888
Headnote: "Composed on visiting Kamo."
This is the first poem in the sequence on the Kamo Shrines. For long years the poet has seen only her sorrowful reflection in the Mitarashi stream, and she laments what to do with herself, whose lot never changes. According to the headnote, it was composed when she visited the Kamo Shrine. It voices her ill fortune to the god and her longing for rescue.
The author, "Suō no Naishi," is Taira no Nakako. A daughter of Taira no Munenaka, Governor of Suō, she served at court as a palace attendant from the reign of Emperor Go-Reizei to that of Emperor Horikawa.
The first line, "toshi o hete," means "through the passing years."
The second line, "uki kage o nomi," means "only my sorrowful form"; "kage" is her own reflection on the water.
In the third line, "Mitarashi no," "mitarashi" is a pivot word joining "mi," "to see" a reflection, and "Mitarashi," the purifying stream. It uses the same pivot word as "kage mitarashi no" in poem 1862 of this book. There the Kamo Deity declared that the human heart is as visible as a reflection in the Mitarashi; here a human laments her sorrowful reflection in its waters, so that the positions of god and human form a pair.
The fourth line, "kawaru yo mo naki," means "with no time of change"; "yo" means both time and one's lot in life.
The last line, "mi o ika ni sen," means "what am I to do with myself?" It closes with the conjectural "n," showing a grief at a loss for any way forward.
- Author
- Taira no Nakako
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
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Sakakiba ni sono iukai wa nakeredomo kami ni kokoro o kakenu ma zo naki
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Tsuki sayuru Mitarashigawa ni kage miete kōri ni sureru yamaai no sode