Aware chō koto koso utate yo no naka o omoi hanarenu hodashi narikere - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

あはれてふ事こそうたて世の中を
思ひ離れぬほだしなりけれ

Roma-ji: Aware chō koto koso utate yo no naka o omoi hanarenu hodashi narikere
English Translation: That which we call "aware,"
that alone, alas, it is
that binds me to the world,
the fetter that will not let
my heart break free and leave it.
Meaning: It is this feeling we call "aware," the heart moved by things, that, sadly, is the very fetter that keeps me from casting off the world.
Commentary: Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems II 939

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poem says that aware, the feeling that stirs us toward people and things, is precisely what holds back a heart that wishes to renounce the world. Lamenting her own tender-heartedness as "alas," she looks at a heart that cannot let go of such feeling.
The next poem, 940, also begins with "that which we call aware," so poems on the same word are placed side by side. Poem 955 in this book also ends with "it is the fetter," and likewise speaks of what holds back one who would leave the world.
The author is Ono no Komachi, one of the Six Poetic Immortals and the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals. Her origins are unclear, but she seems to have served at court around the time of Emperor Ninmyō.

The first line, "that which we call aware," uses chō, a contraction of to iu, "called." The next poem, 940, begins with the same line.
The second line, "that alone, alas," uses the adverb utate, "distressingly." The emphatic koso is answered by the perfective form kere at the end.
The third line, "the world," is the object of "not let ... break free" in the fourth line.
The fourth line means "cannot give up"; nu is the attributive form of the negative zu.
The last line, "it is the fetter," ends with kere, the perfective form of the exclamatory keri, completing the koso construction. It shares this closing line with 955 in this book.
Author: Ono no Komachi
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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