Karakoromo tatsu hi wa kikaji asatsuyu no okite shi yukeba kenu beki mono o - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

唐衣たつ日は聞かじ朝露の
おきてし行けば消ぬべきものを

Roma-ji: Karakoromo tatsu hi wa kikaji asatsuyu no okite shi yukeba kenu beki mono o
English Translation: Like cutting Chinese cloth,
I will not hear the day you leave;
like morning dew,
if you rise and go, leaving me,
surely I shall fade away.
Meaning: I will not listen to talk of the day you leave, that day of cutting fine Chinese cloth. If you rise at dawn and go, leaving me behind like the morning dew, surely I shall vanish as the dew does.
Commentary: Book Eight Parting Poems 375

Headnote: "Topic unknown"; left note: "This poem was composed and sent without a word of reproach when a certain man, having received an official post and taken a new wife, abandoned the woman he had lived with for years, telling her only that he would leave tomorrow"
The poem expresses grief toward a departing man: I do not want to hear of the day you leave; if you go and leave me, I shall vanish like the morning dew. According to the left note, a man who had received a post and was going to the provinces with a new wife abandoned the woman who had been with him for years, telling her only that he would leave the next day, and she, without a word, composed and sent this poem. Instead of lining up reproaches, she quietly expresses her sorrow through associated words of cloth and dew.
The author is listed as "anonymous," and the name has not come down to us.

The first line, "Chinese cloth," is a pillow word that leads to tatsu from the cutting of cloth, and the garment evokes the life of a married couple.
The second line, "I will not hear the day you leave," is a pivot word joining tatsu, "to cut" cloth, with tatsu, "to depart." The negative volitional ji shows a refusal to listen, and the poem breaks after this line.
The third line, "like morning dew," leads to oku and, as a symbol of what fades, forms an associated word with "fade away" in the last line.
The fourth line, "if you rise and go," layers the dew's settling, rising in the morning, and leaving one behind, all in the word oku. The emphatic shi is inserted within the line.
The last line, "surely I shall fade away," overlays the vanishing of dew with the ending of her own life, and breaks off with the concessive mono o, leaving a lingering resonance.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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