Hiku hito mo nakute sutetaru azusayumi kokoro tsuyoki mo kai nakarikeri - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

引く人もなくて捨てたる梓弓
心強きもかひなかりけり

Roma-ji: Hiku hito mo nakute sutetaru azusayumi kokoro tsuyoki mo kai nakarikeri
English Translation: With no one to draw it,
a catalpa bow is cast
aside and left alone;
even the strength of its heart
is of no use at all
Meaning: Like a catalpa bow cast aside with no one to draw it, a man with no one to raise him up finds that even a strong heart is of no use.
Commentary: Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems II 1086

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
Like a catalpa bow cast aside with no one to draw it, even a strong heart is of no use, he says. However strong a bow may be, without someone to draw it, it is useless and left lying. In the same way, however firm one's resolve, it is worth nothing without someone to raise one up, and likening himself to a bow, he laments his misfortune.
The author, "Sugawara no Koretada," was a poet of the late Heian period from the Sugawara family, whose biography is not known in detail.
Following the preceding poem, 1085, it is another poem of grievance with topic unknown. It also shares "hiku," to draw, with "hikitomete" in the third line of the next poem, 1087.

First line, "hiku hito mo": "hiku" overlaps drawing a bow and raising someone up. It shares "hiku" with "hikitomete" in the third line of the next poem, 1087.
Second line, "nakute sutetaru": "with no one, cast aside."
Third line, "azusayumi": a bow made of catalpa wood, a figure for the poet himself.
Fourth line, "kokoro tsuyoki mo": "even with a strong heart," overlapping the strength of the bow with strength of will.
Fifth line, "kai nakarikeri": "keri" is exclamatory, "it is of no use at all."
Author: Sugawara no Koretada
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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