Nanigoto o ika ni omou to nakeredomo tamoto kawakanu aki no yūgure

何事をいかに思ふとなけれども
袂かわかぬ秋の夕暮

Roma-ji: Nanigoto o ika ni omou to nakeredomo tamoto kawakanu aki no yūgure
English Translation: Though I cannot say
what it is or how I think
that has brought me grief,
still my sleeves will never dry
in the autumn evening dusk.
Meaning: Though it is not that I brood over anything in particular, or in any particular way, my sleeves never dry in the autumn dusk.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 291

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Among autumn poems"
This is another poem composed on autumn. Though there is nothing in particular that the poet broods over, in the autumn dusk his tears flow so that his sleeves have no time to dry. The causeless sadness has now become tears that wet the sleeves.
Following the preceding poem, which asked the cause of the sadness, this one describes the poet weeping without any cause. The movement of the heart deepens from a poem that asks the reason to a poem that weeps without one.

First line, “nanigoto o”: what matter, which with the following lines says there is nothing in particular to brood on.
Second line, “ika ni omou to”: how I think of it, turning the question back on the contents of the heart.
Third line, “nakeredomo”: though there is none, the concessive domo leading on to the tears of the lower verse.
Fourth line, “tamoto kawakanu”: the sleeves wet with tears never dry, showing that the tears do not cease.
Fifth line, “aki no yūgure”: ending on a noun, with the same last line as 289.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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