Toshi o hete kimi ga minareshi masukagami mukashi no kage wa tomarazarikeri - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

年を経て君が見馴れし真澄鏡
昔の影は止まらざりけり

Roma-ji: Toshi o hete kimi ga minareshi masukagami mukashi no kage wa tomarazarikeri
English Translation: For years upon years
my lord gazed into you,
clear and shining mirror,
yet the image of the past
has not stayed within
Meaning: Clear mirror that my father gazed into for so many years, the image of those days has not stayed in you.
Commentary: Book Nine Poems of Lament 565

Headnote: "Composed on seeing among his things the mirror that Lord Kōtoku always used to look into, after he passed away"
Composed after the death of the poet's father, Lord Kōtoku, Chancellor Fujiwara no Tamemitsu, on seeing among his belongings the mirror his father always looked into. Clear mirror that my father gazed into for years, he says, the image of former days has not stayed. The mirror that reflected his father every day remains unchanged, but his father's figure is no longer in it, and this contrast between thing and person conveys the grief of loss. Tamemitsu died in 992.
The author, "Fujiwara no Michinobu Ason," was the son of Chancellor Fujiwara no Tamemitsu. He rose to Middle Captain of the Left Palace Guards but died in 994 at only twenty-three. He is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals of the Middle Ages and has a poem in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.

First line, "toshi o hete": "through long years."
Second line, "kimi ga minareshi": "kimi" is his father Tamemitsu, and "shi" the attributive of the past "ki," "that you were used to seeing."
Third line, "masukagami": a clear, bright mirror, the noun standing alone with feeling. The poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "mukashi no kage wa": "kage" is the reflected figure, his father's image in life.
Fifth line, "tomarazarikeri": "zari" is the continuative of the negative "zu" and "keri" expresses realization, "it has not stayed." Poems 578 and 579 of this book also use the words "tomu" and "tomaru" for tears that cannot be held back.
Author: Fujiwara no Michinobu
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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