Inishie wa omoikakeki ya torikawashi kaku kin mono to nori no koromo o - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

いにしへは思ひかけきや取りかはし
かく着んものと法の衣を

Roma-ji: Inishie wa omoikakeki ya torikawashi kaku kin mono to nori no koromo o
English Translation: In days long ago
could we ever have imagined,
exchanging them so,
that we would be wearing thus
these robes of the holy Law?
Meaning: Long ago, could we ever have imagined that we would one day exchange these robes of the Law and both wear them like this?
Commentary: Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems II 1100

Headnote: "Sent when I presented monk's vestments and robes to the former Major Counselor Kintō, who had entered the religious life and was at Nagatani"
This poem accompanied monk's vestments and robes that he sent when Fujiwara no Kintō had taken the tonsure and was at Nagatani. Could we have imagined long ago that we would exchange and wear these robes of the Law, he says. The two who in youth had shared the glories of court have now both taken the tonsure and put on monk's robes. He expresses his feelings at this turn of fortune in a manner fitting the occasion of sending robes. The original headnote reads "前大納宮," but as in other headnotes it is taken as an error for "former major counselor" and corrected.
The author, "the Lay Monk of Hōjōji, Former Chancellor," is Fujiwara no Michinaga. A son of Fujiwara no Kaneie, he rose to regent and chancellor and brought the Fujiwara to the height of their power. In his later years he took the tonsure and founded Hōjōji. He was born in the same year as Kintō.
The next poem, 1101, is Kintō's reply to this one. Following 1098 and 1099, the exchanges around Kintō at Nagatani continue.

First line, "inishie wa": "in days long ago."
Second line, "omoikakeki ya": "ki" is the past auxiliary and "ya" a rhetorical particle, "could we have imagined it? We could not." The poem pauses here.
Third line, "torikawashi": "exchanging them," the sending of robes to each other.
Fourth line, "kaku kin mono to": "that we would wear them thus."
Fifth line, "nori no koromo o": "the robes of the Law," monk's robes, naming through inversion what is worn in the fourth line. It is the same phrase as "nori no koromo o" in the fourth line of the next poem, 1101.
Author: Fujiwara no Michinaga
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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