Oshieoku sono kotonoha o miru tabi ni mata tou kata no naki zo kanashiki - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

教へ置くその言の葉を見るたびに
又問ふ方のなきぞ悲しき

Roma-ji: Oshieoku sono kotonoha o miru tabi ni mata tou kata no naki zo kanashiki
English Translation: Each time that I look
upon those words you wrote
to teach me and left,
how sad that there is no one
I can ask anymore
Meaning: Each time I look at the words you left behind to teach me, it grieves me that there is no longer anyone I can ask.
Commentary: Book Nine Poems of Lament 590

Headnote: "Composed on seeing the private records that the Ōimikado Minister of the Right had written and left, after he passed away"
Composed after the death of the poet's father, the Ōimikado Minister of the Right, Fujiwara no Kinyoshi, on seeing the many private records his father had written and left. Each time I look at the words you left to teach me, he says, it is sad that there is no one to ask again. His father's records passed on to his son the knowledge of court ceremonies and the like, yet when there is something he does not understand, he can no longer ask his father, and the poem expresses that sense of loss.
The author, "Minister of the Right," is Fujiwara no Sanesada, son of Minister of the Right Fujiwara no Kinyoshi. He was Minister of the Right when the Senzai Wakashū was compiled and later rose to Minister of the Left. Called the Later Tokudaiji Minister of the Left, he has a poem in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
Following the exchange in 586 and 587 of this book, it is another poem mourning Kinyoshi. Poem 494 of Book Seven also opens with "oshieoku"; there an exile leaves a secret piece to his pupil as a keepsake, while here a son left behind grieves as he reads his father's teachings.

First line, "oshieoku": "left behind in teaching." It is the same first line as 494 of Book Seven.
Second line, "sono kotonoha o": "kotonoha" means words, the teachings recorded in his father's private records.
Third line, "miru tabi ni": "each time I see them."
Fourth line, "mata tou kata no": "tou" is to ask and "kata" the person, "anyone to ask again." It shares the verb "tou" with "kyō toeba" in the preceding poem, 589.
Fifth line, "naki zo kanashiki": the emphatic "zo" closes with the attributive "kanashiki." It is the same close as "kiku zo kanashiki" in the preceding poem.
Author: Fujiwara no Sanesada
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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