Tama nukishi ayame no kusa wa arinagara yodono wa aren mono to ya wa mishi - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

玉貫きしあやめの草はありながら
よどのは荒れん物とやは見し

Roma-ji: Tama nukishi ayame no kusa wa arinagara yodono wa aren mono to ya wa mishi
English Translation: The sweet flag plants
once threaded through with beads
are still lying here:
did I ever think the night hall
would fall to ruin so?
Meaning: The sweet flags threaded with beads are still here, unchanged; did I ever dream that the night hall where she slept would fall to ruin like this?
Commentary: Book Nine Poems of Lament 557

Headnote: "Reply"
A reply to Ben no Menoto's poem before it. The sweet flags threaded with beads are still here, the poet says, yet I never thought the night hall would fall to ruin. The festival decorations remain unchanged while the mistress who hung them is gone, and through this contrast between things and people she expresses grief at the loss of the Empress Dowager Kenshi.
The author, "Gō no Jijū," was the daughter of Ōe no Masahira and Akazome Emon and served at court as a lady-in-waiting.
In this exchange with the preceding poem, 556, this poem takes up "ayamegusa" and "namida no tama ni" from that poem with "tama nukishi" and "ayame no kusa wa."

First line, "tama nukishi": "shi" is the attributive of the past "ki," "threaded with beads," answering "namida no tama ni nukikaete" in the preceding poem.
Second line, "ayame no kusa wa": the sweet flag set on the herbal ball, answering "ayamegusa" in the first line of the preceding poem.
Third line, "arinagara": "though it remains as it was."
Fourth line, "yodono wa aren": "yodono" is a pivot word joining "yo-dono," the night hall where one sleeps, with Yodo-no, the Yodo fields famous for sweet flags. "N" is conjectural, "would fall to ruin."
Fifth line, "mono to ya wa mishi": the rhetorical "ya wa" closes with "shi," the attributive of the past "ki," "did I think it would be so? I never did."
Author: Gō no Jijū
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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