Tarachime wa kakare tote shimo mubatama no waga kurokami o nadezu ya ariken - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

たらちめはかかれとてしもむばたまの
我が黒髪を撫でずやありけん

Roma-ji: Tarachime wa kakare tote shimo mubatama no waga kurokami o nadezu ya ariken
English Translation: It was not, surely,
that it might come to this
that my mother once
stroked this jet-black hair of mine,
her hand upon my head
Meaning: Surely it was not so that I might come to this that my mother once stroked my jet-black hair.
Commentary: Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems III 1240

Headnote: "Written on something when he first shaved his head."
The poet says that surely his mother did not stroke his black hair hoping he would come to this. As he shaves his head to take vows, he remembers the mother who stroked his hair as a child and wished for his future, and voices his grief at going against her hopes.
According to the headnote, he wrote this on something when he first shaved his head. He is said to have taken vows on the death of Emperor Ninmyō, whom he served. The poet who as a monk bantered with Komachi in 1196 of this book here voices the pain he felt on renouncing the world.
The poet, Henjō, was named Yoshimine no Munesada in lay life and was a grandson of Emperor Kanmu. He served Emperor Ninmyō and took the tonsure on the emperor's death, rising to the rank of Archbishop. One of the Six Poetic Immortals and the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals, he is represented in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu by "Amatsukaze kumo no kayoiji fukitoji yo."

The first line, "Tarachime wa," means "my mother."
The second line, "kakare tote shimo," means "that I might come to this," with "shimo" emphatic. It points to his present shorn state.
The third line, "mubatama no," is a pillow word for "black."
The fourth line, "waga kurokami o," means "my black hair." It shares "waga kurokami" with the second line of 1219 of this book: there hair turned white with age, here hair shorn away.
The last line, "nadezu ya ariken," means "surely she did not stroke it," with the rhetorical binding particle "ya" closed by the attributive "ken."
Author: Henjō
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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