先立つを見るはなほこそ悲しけれ
おくれ果つべきこの世ならねど
おくれ果つべきこの世ならねど
- Roma-ji
-
Sakidatsu o miru wa nao koso kanashikere okurehatsubeki kono yo naranedo
- English Translation
-
To watch others go
on before me is still
a sorrowful thing,
though this is not a world
where one is left behind for good
- Meaning
- To watch others go before me is still so sad, though this is not a world where any of us can stay behind for good.
- Commentary
-
Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems II 1141
Headnote: "Topic unknown"
To watch others go before me is still sad, though this is not a world where one can stay behind for good, she says. Everyone must die in time, and no one alone can survive forever. Even knowing this, it is still sad to see off those close to one who go first, and she sings of a heart that knows impermanence yet cannot hold back the grief of parting.
The author, "Senji of Rokujōin," was a lady who served at Rokujōin and was called Senji. Her biography is not known in detail.
It shares the phrasing "beki kono yo narane" with "futatabi kubeki kono yo naraneba" in the fourth and fifth lines of 1129 of this book.
First line, "sakidatsu o": "others going before me in death."
Second line, "miru wa nao koso": "nao" means "still," and "koso," an emphatic binding particle, closes with "kere" in the third line.
Third line, "kanashikere": the realis of the adjective "kanashi," closing the binding. The poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "okurehatsubeki": "where one could stay behind for good."
Fifth line, "kono yo naranedo": "do" is concessive, "though it is not such a world." Through inversion it returns to the third line. It shares its phrasing with "kono yo naraneba" in the fifth line of 1129 of this book.
- Author
- Rokujōin no Senji
- Source
- Senzai Wakashu
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