Tamuke ni wa tsuzuri no sode mo kiru beki ni momiji ni akeru kami ya kaesamu - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

手向けには綴りの袖も切るべきに
紅葉に飽ける神や返さむ

Roma-ji: Tamuke ni wa tsuzuri no sode mo kiru beki ni momiji ni akeru kami ya kaesamu
English Translation: For an offering,
I should cut my patched sleeve too,
and yet I wonder—
sated with the autumn leaves,
will the gods not send it back?
Meaning: As an offering I ought to cut off even the sleeve of my patched monk's robe, but the gods, already sated with the splendor of autumn leaves, might well send it back to me.
Commentary: Book Nine Travel Poems 421

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "When the Retired Emperor of Suzaku-in went to Nara, composed at Mount Tamuke"
Like the preceding poem, this was composed at Mount Tamuke during Retired Emperor Uda's journey. The poet says he should cut the sleeve of his humble monk's robe as an offering, but the gods, already satisfied with the lovely autumn leaves, would likely return it; humbling himself as a monk, he praises the splendor of the foliage.
Responding to Michizane's likening of the leaves to an offering in the preceding poem, he answers with the conceit that the gods are already sated with leaves, and the two poems stand together as poems of the same occasion.
Sosei was a son of Archbishop Henjō, and his lay name was Yoshimine no Harutoshi. He is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals, enjoyed the trust of Retired Emperor Uda, and accompanied him on this journey.

The first line, "as an offering," means as a gift presented to the gods. Where 406 at the head of this book recalls the moon over Mount Mikasa in Nara from a foreign land, this poem at the end of the book sings of the autumn leaves of Mount Tamuke in Nara, so the book's beginning and end answer each other through the hills of Nara.
In the second line, "tsuzuri" is a humble monk's robe made of patched-together cloth, a word that shows the poet's station as a monk.
In the third line, "beki" is the attributive form of "beshi," expressing what ought to be done, and "ni" is an adversative particle: "though I ought to cut my sleeve as an offering."
In the fourth line, "akeru" means sated; taking up "the brocade of autumn leaves" of the preceding poem, it imagines the gods have already received ample offerings of leaves.
In the last line, "ya" is an interrogative binding particle, completed by the attributive of the conjectural "mu." The poem ends with humility and gentle humor, wondering whether the gods will return his shabby sleeve.
Author: Sosei
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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