Ikitaru ka shinuru ka ikani omōezu mi yori hoka naru tamakushige kana - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

生きたるか死ぬるかいかに思ほえず
身より他なる玉櫛笥かな

Roma-ji: Ikitaru ka shinuru ka ikani omōezu mi yori hoka naru tamakushige kana
English Translation: Are you living still,
or are you dead? How it is,
I cannot tell;
parted from you, here it lies,
this little jeweled box.
Meaning: Whether you are living or have died, I cannot tell; here is this jeweled box, parted from your body and left behind.
Commentary: Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Congratulatory Poems 1209

Headnote: "When Lord Narifusa, intending to become a monk, went to Iimuro and sent to his house in the capital for his pillow box, she wrote this on it"
The poet says she cannot tell whether he is alive or dead, and here is this jeweled box, parted from his body. The headnote shows that when Fujiwara no Narifusa, intending to take the tonsure, shut himself away at Iimuro on Mount Hiei and sent to his house in the capital for his pillow box, she wrote this on the box. A husband who has renounced the world is as good as dead while living, and she entrusts the grief of parting to the box left behind, apart from him. Narifusa was a son of Fujiwara no Yoshichika and took the tonsure young.
This is the closing poem of the book. Where the opening poem, 1159, celebrated on New Year's Day the beginning of a hundred-year spring, this closing poem laments not knowing whether one who has left the world is alive or dead, so a book that began with celebration closes with the grief of parting. It also answers "ari ya nashi ya" in 1193 of this book in its anxiety over another's life or death.
The author, the Daughter of Lord Noritada, was a daughter of Lord Noritada and is thought to have been the wife of Narifusa in the headnote, but little is known of her.

First line, "ikitaru ka," means "are you living," pairing with "shinuru ka" in the second line. It shares the word "ikitaru" with the third line of the preceding poem, 1208, "ikitaredo."
Second line, "shinuru ka ikani," means "or have you died, how is it," answering the fourth line of 1193 in this book, "ari ya nashi ya no," in questioning another's life or death.
Third line, "omōezu," means "I cannot tell," and the poem breaks after this third line.
Fourth line, "mi yori hoka naru," means "parted from your body," speaking of the box left behind, apart from her husband.
Final line, "tamakushige kana," means "this jeweled box," with "tamakushige" a graceful name for the pillow box of the headnote and "kana" exclamatory. Against the words of celebration in the opening poem, 1159, it closes the book with the grief of parting.
Author: Daughter of Lord Noritada
Source: Shui Wakashu
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