Fujigoromo hatsururu ito wa wabibito no namida no tama no o to zo narikeru - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

藤衣はつるる糸はわび人の
涙の玉の緒とぞなりける

Roma-ji: Fujigoromo hatsururu ito wa wabibito no namida no tama no o to zo narikeru
English Translation: From robes of mourning
the threads that fray and come loose
have become the cords
that string the beads of tears
shed by one who lives in grief.
Meaning: The threads fraying from my mourning robe have become the cords that string the beads of tears of one who grieves.
Commentary: Book Sixteen Poems of Lament 841

Headnote: "Composed while in mourning for his father"
This poem was composed while the poet was in mourning for his father. The threads fraying from his mourning robe, he says, have become cords that string the falling beads of his tears. Likening tears to beads and loose threads to the cord that strings them, it expresses unceasing tears and a mourning so long that the robe has worn thin.
Beside the preceding poem of mourning for a mother, both call the mourner wabibito and entrust grief to clothing.
The author, Mibu no Tadamine, was one of the compilers of the Kokinshū and one of the Thirty-Six Immortals of Poetry.

The first line, "wisteria robe," names a coarse garment woven from wisteria fiber, meaning mourning clothes.
The second line, "the fraying threads," introduces "thread," an associated word with "cord" in the last line.
The third line, "of one in grief," refers to the poet himself, using the same word wabibito as the fourth line of the preceding poem.
The fourth line, "the beads of tears," likens drops of tears to beads.
The last line, "have become the cord," names o, the string that threads beads, and closes in the attributive keru after zo.
Author: Mibu no Tadamine
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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