Yoshi saraba namida ni kuchine karagoromo hosu mo hitome o shinobu kagiri zo - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

よしさらば涙に朽ちね唐衣
干すも人目を忍ぶ限りぞ

Roma-ji: Yoshi saraba namida ni kuchine karagoromo hosu mo hitome o shinobu kagiri zo
English Translation: Well then, so be it:
rot away with tears, then,
my Chinese robe:
I dry you only as long
as I hide from others' eyes
Meaning: Well then, so be it: rot away with my tears, my Chinese robe. I dry you only so long as I must hide my love from others' eyes.
Commentary: Book Thirteen Love Poems III 817

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed when a poetry contest was held"
Composed, like the preceding poem, at a poetry contest. Well then, he says, rot away with tears, my Chinese robe; I dry you only as long as I hide from others' eyes. He dried his wet robe so that no one would guess his tears, but now, weary even of hiding his love, he calls on the robe to rot away if it will, a reckless heart.
The author, "the monk Kenshō," was the adopted son of Fujiwara no Akisuke, Master of the Western Capital Office. Known as a scholar of poetics of the Rokujō Fujiwara house, he wrote treatises such as Shūchūshō.
Taking up the preceding poem's sleeves left to tears, this one casts the robe off, telling it to rot with tears, carrying the course of these poems on tear-wet sleeves a step further. Poem 820 of this book, "would it have rotted away with tears, my Chinese robe," uses the same "tears," "rot" and "Chinese robe" yet sings of a robe spared from rotting, forming a reversed picture of this poem.

First line, "yoshi saraba": "yoshi" is an adverb of letting things be, "so be it," and "saraba" means "well then."
Second line, "namida ni kuchine": "ne" is the imperative of the perfective "nu," "rot away with tears!" The poem pauses here. Like "namida ni ya kuchihatenamashi" in the first two lines of 820 of this book, it speaks of a robe rotting with tears.
Third line, "karagoromo": a fine robe in the Chinese style, an elegant word for a robe, the one called on to "rot away." It is the same word as in the third line of 820 of this book. The poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "hosu mo hitome o": "drying it, too, from others' eyes."
Fifth line, "shinobu kagiri zo": "kagiri" means "only so long as," and "zo" is emphatic, "only so long as I hide from others' eyes."
Author: Kenshō
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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