Aki goto ni karitsuru ine wa tsumitsuredo oinikeru mi zo okidokoro naki - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

秋ごとに刈りつる稲は積みつれど
老いにける身ぞ置き所なき

Roma-ji: Aki goto ni karitsuru ine wa tsumitsuredo oinikeru mi zo okidokoro naki
English Translation: Every autumn
the rice I reaped and gathered in
I have heaped up high,
but for this body grown so old
there is no place to set it down.
Meaning: Every autumn I have heaped up the rice I reaped, yet for this body grown old there is no place to set it down.
Commentary: Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Autumn Poems 1124

Headnote: "For a screen painted with an old man having rice carried"
The poet says that though he has heaped up the rice he reaped every autumn, for his body, grown old with the years, there is no place to set it down. The headnote shows it was written for a screen painted with an old man having rice carried. Contrasting the work of heaping up rice with a body that has heaped up years and grown old, it tells the lament of the old man in the painting.
The author is Mibu no Tadami, son of Mibu no Tadamine, one of the Kokinshū compilers. He is known for his contest with Taira no Kanemori at the Tentoku Palace Poetry Contest and is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "aki goto ni," means "every autumn."
Second line, "karitsuru ine wa," means "the rice I reaped," standing beside the fourth line of the preceding poem, 1123, "karite osamemu," in singing of the rice harvest.
Third line, "tsumitsuredo," means "though I have heaped it up," with "tsure" the perfective form of the perfective auxiliary "tsu" and "do" a concessive particle. The heaping up of rice resonates with the heaping up of years.
Fourth line, "oinikeru mi zo," means "this body grown old," with "zo" an emphatic binding particle.
Final line, "okidokoro naki," means "there is no place to set it," with the attributive form "naki" resolving the "zo" of the fourth line. It pairs with "tsumi," heaping up, in the third line, as having a place to put things against having none.
Author: Mibu no Tadami
Source: Shui Wakashu
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