Kage taete obotsukanasa no masukagami mizu wa waga mi no usa mo shirareji - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

影絶えておぼつかなさのますかがみ
見ずはわが身の憂さも知られじ

Roma-ji: Kage taete obotsukanasa no masukagami mizu wa waga mi no usa mo shirareji
English Translation: Your image gone now,
my unease grows ever more,
like this clear mirror;
if I do not look in it,
I will not know my sorrow.
Meaning: Your image no longer appears, and my unease only grows, like this clear mirror; if I never look into it, I will not have to see my own misery.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 915

Headnote: "After Tomomitsu had left Kunimochi's daughter, written on a mirror being sent back to him"
The poem says that if I do not look into the clear mirror, in which your figure no longer appears and my unease only grows, I will be spared from realizing my own misery. It sings of the pain of a mirror that once must have reflected the two together now showing only a forlorn figure alone, and by returning the mirror shows a heart accepting the parting.
According to the headnote, it was written on a mirror being returned after a man called Tomomitsu had left Kunimochi's daughter. The mirror is thought to have been a gift from the man.
The author, "Kunimochi," is here taken to be the daughter of Fujiwara no Kunimochi. The author's name in the text is that of her father, but according to the headnote it was composed by the daughter, left by Tomomitsu, when she returned the mirror, so it is treated here as hers. Little is known of either father or daughter.

First line, "kage taete," means "your figure no longer appearing," laying the absence of your reflection in the mirror over the end of your visits.
Second line, "obotsukanasa no," means "the unease."
Third line, "masukagami," is a pivot word joining "masu," the unease that grows, and "masukagami," a clear mirror. With 857 in this book and the next poem, 916, poems on "masukagami" answer one another.
Fourth line, "mizu wa waga mi no," means "if I do not look, my own," with "zu wa" a negative supposition.
Final line, "usa mo shirareji," means "I would not be made to feel my misery," with "re" the irrealis of the spontaneous auxiliary "ru" and "ji" a negative conjecture.
Author: Daughter of Fujiwara no Kunimochi
Source: Shui Wakashu
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