Inochi ya wa nani zo wa tsuyu no adamono o au ni shi kaeba oshikaranaku ni - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

命やは何ぞは露のあだものを
逢ふにしかへば惜しからなくに

Roma-ji: Inochi ya wa nani zo wa tsuyu no adamono o au ni shi kaeba oshikaranaku ni
English Translation: What is life, after all?
What is it but a fleeting thing,
frail as the dew?
If traded for a meeting,
I would not grudge its loss.
Meaning: What is life, after all? It is nothing but a fleeting thing, fragile as dew. If I could trade it for a meeting with you, I would not regret losing it.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 615

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poet says that life is no more than a fleeting thing like dew, and he would not regret it in the least if he could trade it for a meeting with the beloved. The fierce love that wishes to meet even at the cost of life is expressed through strong rhetorical questions and exclamation. Placed at the end of Book Twelve, Love Poems II, it closes the book with the desire to meet even in exchange for life.
Ki no Tomonori was a poet of the early Heian period, the son of Ki no Aritomo and a cousin of Ki no Tsurayuki. He served as Senior Private Secretary and was appointed one of the compilers of the Kokinshū, but died before its completion. He is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.

First line, "inochi ya wa": ya wa is a binding particle expressing a rhetorical question, strongly dismissing life: "what is life?" Whereas 552 at the head of this book opens with a love that can meet only in dreams, this last poem closes with the wish to meet even at the cost of life, so the beginning and end of the book echo each other in their longing to meet.
Second line, "nani zo wa tsuyu no": nani zo wa means "what is it? nothing," reinforcing the rhetorical question of the first line. Tsuyu, dew, is a figure for something that easily vanishes.
Third line, "adamono o": adamono means something fleeting and empty, and o is exclamatory with a concessive sense: "though it is fleeting as dew."
Fourth line, "au ni shi kaeba": shi is an emphatic particle and kau means to exchange: "if I could trade it for a meeting."
Fifth line, "oshikaranaku ni": naku ni is a negative with a sigh, closing with "it would be no loss." In contrast to 609 of this book, which regretted waking from a dream more than losing life, here the poet declares that life is no loss for the sake of meeting.
Author: Ki no Tomonori
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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