Itsu tote mo mi no uki koto wa kawaranedo mukashi wa oi o nageki ya wa seshi - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

いつとても身の憂きことは変はらねど
昔は老いを嘆きやはせし

Roma-ji: Itsu tote mo mi no uki koto wa kawaranedo mukashi wa oi o nageki ya wa seshi
English Translation: At any time at all
the sorrows of this life of mine
have not changed, and yet
in the days of long ago
did I ever grieve at age?
Meaning: At any time the sorrows of my life have been the same, and yet in days gone by did I ever grieve over old age? Never once.
Commentary: Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems II 1080

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed as a poem expressing my grievances"
This poem was composed as a poem of grievance. The sorrows of my life have never changed, but in the past did I ever grieve at growing old, he says. The lament over his misfortune has been the same since youth, but in the past it did not include the grief of age. Now, in later years, the sorrow of age is piled on the unchanging hardship, and he sings of the heavy lament of one's last years.
The author, "the monk Dōin," is Fujiwara no Atsuyori. A son of Fujiwara no Kiyotaka, he took the tonsure and was called Dōin. It is told that he devoted himself deeply to waka into old age.
It has the same headnote as the preceding poem, 1079, and both express the thoughts of one who has grown old. Where the preceding poem says the poet no longer even finds the world sorrowful, this one says the grief of age has been newly added, so the two stand in contrast.

First line, "itsu tote mo": "at any time."
Second line, "mi no uki koto wa": "the sorrows of my life."
Third line, "kawaranedo": "ne" is the realis of the negative "zu" and "do" concessive, "though they have not changed."
Fourth line, "mukashi wa oi o": "in the past, old age," marking the contrast with the present. It shares a turning to the past with "inishie mo" in the first line of the next poem, 1081.
Fifth line, "nageki ya wa seshi": "ya wa" is rhetorical and "shi" the attributive of the past auxiliary "ki," "did I ever grieve? I did not."
Author: Dōin
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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