Shinobe to ya ayame mo shiranu kokoro ni mo nagakaranu yo no uki ni ueken - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

しのべとやあやめも知らぬ心にも
長からぬ世のうきに植ゑけん

Roma-ji: Shinobe to ya ayame mo shiranu kokoro ni mo nagakaranu yo no uki ni ueken
English Translation: Did you mean, "Remember me"?
With a heart that did not know
iris from its sense,
in the mire of a sad world, not long,
did you plant them there, my child?
Meaning: Did you mean me to remember you? With a heart too young to know the way of things, you planted these irises in the sad mire of a world that was not to last long.
Commentary: Book Twenty Lament Poems 1281

Headnote: "On seeing the irises come up the year after a child called Fukutari had planted them in the garden stream and then died"
The poet asks whether the child meant him to remember, planting irises with a heart too young to know the way of things in the mire of a world that was not to last. The headnote shows he composed it on seeing irises come up in the year after a child called Fukutari had planted them in the garden stream and died. Fukutari was the poet's son, who died young. Laying "ayame," iris and the sense of things, and "uki," mire and sorrow, over each other, he grieves the child's short life on seeing the irises he left behind.
The author, written as "Awata Minister of the Right," is Fujiwara no Michikane. A son of Fujiwara no Kaneie and an elder brother of Michinaga, he rose through Minister of the Right to Regent, but died soon after taking office. He was called Lord Awata for his villa at Awata.

First line, "shinobe to ya," means "did you mean, remember me," with the binding particle "ya" expressing a question resolved by the attributive "ken" in the final line.
Second line, "ayame mo shiranu," is a pivot word: "ayame" means "iris" and "the pattern" of things. It comes to mean "not knowing the way of things." It shares the iris with the third line of the preceding poem, 1280, "ayamegusa."
Third line, "kokoro ni mo," means "with a heart," a child's heart.
Fourth line, "nagakaranu yo no," means "of a world not long," saying "not long" through the long roots of the iris and speaking of the child's short life.
Final line, "uki ni ueken," is a pivot word: "uki" means the "mire" where irises grow and "sorrowful." "Ken" is an auxiliary conjecturing a past cause.
Author: Fujiwara no Michikane
Source: Shui Wakashu
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