Mi no hodo o shirazu to hito ya omouran kaku uki nagara toshi o henureba - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

身のほどを知らずと人や思ふらん
かく憂きながら年を経ぬれば

Roma-ji: Mi no hodo o shirazu to hito ya omouran kaku uki nagara toshi o henureba
English Translation: "He knows not his place,"
is that what people think of me,
I wonder, since I
have gone on through the years
in sorrow just as I am?
Meaning: Do people think I do not know my place? For all these years I have lived on just as I am, in sorrow, without leaving the world.
Commentary: Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems II 1110

Headnote: "Composed as a poem expressing my grievances"
This poem was composed as a poem of grievance. Do people think I do not know my place, since I have lived on through the years in sorrow just as I am, he says. One in misfortune ought to leave the world or withdraw, yet he remains in the world in his sorrowful state, piling up the years. Wondering whether people see him as presumptuous, he expresses the lament of an unfortunate life through his concern for how others see him.
The author, "Major Counselor Muneie," is Fujiwara no Muneie. A son of Fujiwara no Muneyoshi, he rose to major counselor.
It uses in its fourth line the same words as "uki nagara" in the third line of 1112 of this book, both singing of a self that passes on in sorrow. From this poem through 1112, poems of grievance with the same headnote follow.

First line, "mi no hodo o": "one's own station and ability."
Second line, "shirazu to hito ya": "ya" is an interrogative binding particle closing with "ran" in the third line.
Third line, "omouran": "ran" is the auxiliary of present conjecture, "do they think so?" The poem pauses here, in inversion with the lower verse.
Fourth line, "kaku uki nagara": "in sorrow just as I am." It is the same expression as "uki nagara" in the third line of 1112 of this book.
Fifth line, "toshi o henureba": "nure" is the realis of the perfective "nu," and with "ba" it gives a reason, "since I have passed the years."
Author: Fujiwara no Muneie
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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