Shirokami shi kora ni oinaba kaku no goto wakakemu kora ni norae kaneme ya

白髪し子らに生ひなばかくのごと
若けむ子らに罵らえかねめや

Roma-ji: Shirokami shi kora ni oinaba kaku no goto wakakemu kora ni norae kaneme ya
English Translation: Should white hair grow
on you girls, then just like this,
could you hope to escape
the jeers of girls who then are young?
You too will be mocked as I am.
Meaning: Should white hair grow on you girls, could you escape being jeered at by the young girls of that day, just as I am now? You surely could not.
Commentary: Book Sixteen Poems with Tales of Origin and Miscellaneous Poems 3793

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Two envoys."
The old man says that once white hair grows on them, they too will be teased by young girls just as he is now. Having shown in the preceding poem that age is inevitable, he goes further, warning that those who laugh will one day be laughed at.
The tale of the Bamboo-Cutter is told in the headnote to the chōka. Climbing a hill in late spring, the old bamboo-cutter came upon nine maidens cooking broth, who teased him and made him blow on their fire. Saying he had chanced upon immortals, he apologized with one chōka and two envoys, and the maidens answered him with nine poems.
The Bamboo-Cutter is a legendary old man said to live by gathering bamboo. Because he shares his title with the old man of the later Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, he has long drawn attention as one possible source of that story.

First line, "shirokami shi," means "white hair." The emphatic shi picks up the word from the fourth line of the preceding poem, 3792.
Second line, "kora ni oinaba," means "if it grows on you girls." Following on from "oizu arame ya mo," it moves the scene forward to the time after the white hair has come.
Third line, "kaku no goto," means "just like this," pointing to the old man himself, being teased by the girls right now.
Fourth line, "wakakemu kora ni," means "by girls who are young." Kora appears in both the second and fourth lines, creating a reversal in which today's young girls trade places with those of tomorrow.
Final line, "norae kaneme ya," means "could you avoid being mocked?" Rae marks the passive, kane means "be unable to," and the rhetorical ya drives home that being laughed at cannot be avoided.
Author: The Old Bamboo-Cutter
Source: Manyoshu
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