Ato tareshi kami ni aoi no nakariseba nani ni tanomi o kakete sugimashi - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

跡垂れし神にあふひのなかりせば
何に頼みをかけて過ぎまし

Roma-ji: Ato tareshi kami ni aoi no nakariseba nani ni tanomi o kakete sugimashi
English Translation: Had there been no day
to meet the god who came down,
no aoi leaves,
on what could I hang my hopes
and so pass my days along?
Meaning: Had there been no day to meet the god who manifested here, no aoi leaves, on what could I have hung my hopes to live out my days?
Commentary: Book Nineteen Poems on the Gods 1892

Headnote: "Composed at the Miare rite, when the shrine priests each hung aoi leaves."
This is the fifth poem in the sequence on the Kamo Shrines. Had there been no day to meet the god who manifested here—no aoi—on what could I have hung my hopes to pass my days? According to the headnote, it was composed at the Miare rite, when the shrine priests each hung aoi leaves. Overlaying the festival day of meeting the god with the aoi leaves, it expresses a life that relies on the god.
The author, Kamo no Shigeyasu, was chief priest of the Kamo Wakeikazuchi Shrine and compiled the private anthology Tsukimōde Wakashū.
Miare is the rite of welcoming the god held at the Kamo Wakeikazuchi Shrine before the Kamo Festival. At the Kamo Festival, aoi leaves were hung on the shrine buildings and on people's caps.

The first line, "ato tareshi," means "who manifested here," referring to suijaku, the temporary appearance of buddhas and bodhisattvas in the form of gods.
In the second line, "kami ni aoi no," "aoi" is a pivot word joining "au hi," "the day of meeting" the god, and "aoi," the leaves hung at the festival.
The third line, "nakariseba," means "had there been none." "Seba" is the counterfactual form, answered by "mashi" in the last line.
The fourth line, "nani ni tanomi o," means "on what my hopes."
The last line, "kakete sugimashi," means "could I have hung them and lived on?" "Kakete" overlays hanging the aoi with hanging one's hopes. The counterfactual "seba ... mashi" shows that only because there is the day of aoi can one rely on the god. From the red of "ake no tamagaki" in the preceding poem, the colors of the Kamo festival move to the green of aoi.
Author: Kamo no Shigeyasu
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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