Kemuri dani shibashi tanabike Toribeyama tachiwakarenishi katami to mo min - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

煙だにしばしたなびけ鳥辺山
立ち別れにし形見とも見ん

Roma-ji: Kemuri dani shibashi tanabike Toribeyama tachiwakarenishi katami to mo min
English Translation: At least the smoke,
let it linger for a while,
O Toribe Hill,
that I may look on it as well
as a keepsake of the one now gone
Meaning: Let at least the smoke linger a while over Toribe Hill, so I may look on it as a keepsake of the one who has parted from us.
Commentary: Book Nineteen Buddhist Poems 1251

Headnote: "Composed on the line, though the fire blazes it does not burn long"
This poem was composed on the scriptural line saying that though a fire blazes it does not burn for long. Let at least the smoke linger a while, Toribe Hill, that I may see it as a keepsake of the one who has parted, he says. Toribe Hill was a place of cremation in the Higashiyama hills of Kyoto. Thinking that human life is as fleeting as a blazing fire that soon dies away, he longs for at least the smoke that sends off the dead to stay a little while as a keepsake.
The author, "Jakuzen Hōshi," was named Fujiwara no Yorinari in lay life and was a son of Fujiwara no Tametada, governor of Tango. With his brothers Jakuchō and Jakunen he lived in retreat at Ōhara, and they were called the Three Jaku of Tokiwa or of Ōhara. He was a close friend of Saigyō.
1209 in this book sings of the relics left after the smoke of cremation has cleared away, while this poem tries to hold back the smoke of a cremation as it fades.

First line, "kemuri dani": the smoke of cremation, with "dani" an adverbial particle meaning "at least." Like "kemuri mo sumite" in the second line of 1209 and "kemuri nite" in the third line of 1254 in this book, it sings of the smoke of the funeral pyre.
Second line, "shibashi tanabike": "tanabike" is the imperative, "drift long and low."
Third line, "Toribeyama": the place of cremation in the Higashiyama hills of Kyoto, in the form of an address. The poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "tachiwakarenishi": "tachi" echoes the rising of smoke, "ni" is perfective and "shi" the attributive of the past "ki," "who has gone away."
Fifth line, "katami to mo min": "katami" is a keepsake that recalls the dead, and "n" is the auxiliary of intention.
Author: Jakuzen
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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