Kaku shite ya nao ya oinamu miyuki furu ōarakino no shino ni aranaku ni

かくしてやなほや老いなむみ雪降る
大荒木野の小竹にあらなくに

Roma-ji: Kaku shite ya nao ya oinamu miyuki furu ōarakino no shino ni aranaku ni
English Translation: Living on like this,
must I grow old all the same?
Where the snow falls deep,
on the Ōaraki fields
I am not the bamboo grass
Meaning: Must I go on like this and grow old after all? I am no bamboo grass on the fields of Ōaraki where the snow falls.
Commentary: Book Seven Allegorical Poems 1349

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On Grasses"
The speaker laments that, though not the bamboo grass on the snowy fields of Ōaraki, she must grow old just the same. She likens herself to bamboo grass whitened by snow, lamenting that she grows older without being cared for by anyone.
It is one of the poems on grasses. The next poem also sings of bamboo grass, so the two stand side by side as poems on bamboo grass. The location of Ōaraki is disputed. The poet is unknown.

In the first line, "Living on like this," "ya" marks a question.
The second line, "must I grow old all the same," is a kakari-musubi construction in which "ya" is answered by the attributive "mu," and the poem pauses here.
The third line, "Where the snow falls deep," uses "mi" as a word of praise for snow.
The fourth line names the fields of Ōaraki, whose location is disputed.
In the final line, "naku ni" adds a concessive sense to the negative: "though I am not." It names the same bamboo grass as the second line of the next poem.
Source: Manyoshu
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