Mukashi mishi iki no matsubara koto towaba wasurenu hito mo ari to kotae yo - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

昔見しいきの松原こと問はば
忘れぬ人もありと答へよ

Roma-ji: Mukashi mishi iki no matsubara koto towaba wasurenu hito mo ari to kotae yo
English Translation: If the Iki pines
that I gazed on long ago
should ask after me,
tell them there is one, at least,
who has not forgotten them.
Meaning: If the pine grove of Iki, which I saw long ago, should ask after me, tell it that there is one who has not forgotten.
Commentary: Book Six Parting Poems 337

Headnote: "Sent to a person going to Tsukushi"
The poet entrusts to a person going down to Tsukushi a message: if the pine grove of Iki in Tsukushi, which he once saw, should ask about him, tell it there is one who has not forgotten. Treating the pine grove as a person, he overlays his nostalgia for a place where he once lived with a message for the traveler. According to the headnote, it was sent to a person going down to Tsukushi.
Tachibana no Yorihira was an official of the mid-Heian period, and little is known of his life. From the content of the poem, he seems once to have gone down to Tsukushi.

First line, "mukashi mishi," means "that I saw long ago," with "shi" the attributive of the past auxiliary "ki."
Second line, "iki no matsubara," is the pine grove of Iki, a famed place in Chikuzen, echoing "iki" (living) and calling to mind pines that live long. The next poem, 338, sings of the pine of Takekuma in Mutsu, so the pines of Tsukushi in the west and Mutsu in the east form a pair.
Third line, "koto towaba," means "if it should ask," the irrealis form with "ba" expressing a supposition.
Fourth line, "wasurenu hito mo," means "one who has not forgotten."
Final line, "ari to kotae yo," means "tell it there is," with "kotae yo" an imperative. The poet entrusts his message to the traveler.
Author: Tachibana no Yorihira
Source: Shui Wakashu
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