Yami fukaki ko no moto goto ni chigiri okite asa tatsu kiri no ato no tsuyukesa - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

闇深き木のもとごとに契りおきて
朝たつ霧のあとの露けさ

Roma-ji: Yami fukaki ko no moto goto ni chigiri okite asa tatsu kiri no ato no tsuyukesa
English Translation: Beneath every tree
where the darkness lies so deep,
leaving a pledge there,
like the mist that rises at dawn—
the dew that lingers after.
Meaning: Leaving a pledge beneath each tree where darkness lay deep, he departed like mist rising at dawn—and how wet with dew is all that remains.
Commentary: Book Twenty Buddhist Poems 1954

Headnote: "Having given these instructions, he went again to another land."
This is the fourth poem in the sequence of poems from the Hundred Poems on Buddhist Texts by Jakuzen and others. It sings of the dewy wetness left behind after one who made a pledge beneath each dark tree has departed like mist rising at dawn. According to the headnote, it was composed on the meaning of "Having given these instructions, he went again to another land."
Longing for the Buddha who left his teaching and departed this world, it entrusts the tears of those left behind to the dew remaining after the mist is gone.
No author is named in the text; continuing from the preceding poem, this is a poem by Jakuzen Hōshi, who, whose lay name was Fujiwara no Yorinari, was a son of Fujiwara no Tametada. With his elder brothers Jakunen and Jakuchō he lived in retirement at Ōhara, and the three were called the Three Jaku of Ōhara. He was a close friend of Saigyō.
"Having given these instructions, he went again to another land" is a phrase from the parable of the good physician in the Life Span chapter of the Lotus Sutra. A physician leaves good medicine for his children who have taken poison, goes to another land, and has word sent that their father is dead, awakening them; the parable teaches that the Buddha's showing of his passing is also an expedient means to guide living beings.

The first line, "yami fukaki," shows the darkness of the age after the Buddha is gone, and the depth of delusion.
The second line, "ko no moto goto ni," means "beneath each tree," recalling the Buddha, who awoke beneath a tree and passed away beneath trees.
The third line, "chigiri okite," means "leaving a pledge," transposing the scripture's "having given these instructions," and has extra syllables. "Oki" (leave, settle) becomes an associated word for dew.
In the fourth line, "asa tatsu kiri no," "tatsu" is a pivot word joining mist "rising" and "setting out" on a journey, transposing the scripture's "went again to another land."
The last line, "ato no tsuyukesa," is the dew remaining after the mist has gone, ending on a noun to express the tears of those left behind. Where 1932 wishes to vanish like morning dew, the dew here remains as tears of longing for the departed Buddha.
Author: Jakuzen
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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