Hakanaku mo komu yo o kanete chigiru kana futatabi onaji mi to mo naraji o - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

はかなくも来む世をかねて契るかな
再び同じ身ともならじを

Roma-ji: Hakanaku mo komu yo o kanete chigiru kana futatabi onaji mi to mo naraji o
English Translation: How vain it is, this
pledge that reaches far ahead
to the world to come,
when we shall never again
be born into these same selves
Meaning: How vain it is to pledge ourselves even for the world to come, when we shall never again be born into these same selves.
Commentary: Book Fifteen Love Poems V 921

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
How vain, he says, to pledge ourselves in advance for the world to come, when we shall never again be the same selves. Lovers vow to remain unchanged into the next life, but once reborn no one remains the same person, and the poem looks at the emptiness of love's vows.
The author, "the Minister of the Right," is Fujiwara no Sanesada. The son of Minister of the Right Fujiwara no Kin'yoshi, he was Minister of the Right when this anthology was compiled and later rose to Minister of the Left, called the Later Tokudaiji Minister of the Left. A poem of his is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
Poem 934 of this book, "hakanaku zo nochi no yo made to chigirikeru," like this poem sings of the vanity of vows reaching into the next life, and also opens with "hakanaku." Where this poem finds the vanity in the fact that we cannot be the same selves in the next life, 934 finds it in a heart that changes even now, treating the same theme from another direction.

First line, "hakanaku mo": "how vain, how empty." It shares its wording with "hakanaku zo" in the first line of 934 of this book.
Second line, "komu yo o kanete": "komu yo" is the world to come, and "kanete" means "in advance." Like "nochi no yo made to" in the second line of 934, it speaks of the next life.
Third line, "chigiru kana": "kana" is exclamatory, "how we pledge." The poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "futatabi onaji": "once again the same," after being reborn.
Fifth line, "mi to mo naraji o": "ji" is the negative conjectural, and "o" a final particle carrying an adversative sigh, "though we shall not become the same selves." Drawing on the idea of rebirth, it declares the vanity of the vow.
Author: Fujiwara no Sanesada
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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