Saritomo to kaku mayuzumi no itazura ni kokorobosoku mo oinikeru kana - Kinyo Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

さりともとかく眉墨のいたづらに
心細くも老いにけるかな

Roma-ji: Saritomo to kaku mayuzumi no itazura ni kokorobosoku mo oinikeru kana
English Translation: Thinking still some day,
I have painted my brows thus
all in vain, it seems,
and in a lonely, thin-drawn way
I have grown old after all
Meaning: Thinking that surely one day it would come, I kept painting my brows like this, but all for nothing; forlorn, I have grown old.
Commentary: Book Nine Miscellaneous Poems I 586

Hoping that surely someday his time would come, the poet says, he kept painting his eyebrows, but in vain, and has grown old in loneliness. In the figure of a woman tending her brows as she waits for someone, he laments growing old without the favor of office, though he always hoped it would come.
Following the preceding poem, 585, it laments old age. Near the end of this book, in poem 602, the poet also laments being the one person left out of the general favor.
The author, Toshiyori, is Minamoto no Toshiyori. A son of the Major Counselor Minamoto no Tsunenobu, he compiled this anthology at the command of Retired Emperor Shirakawa.

First line, 'saritomo to', means thinking surely someday, expressing hope.
Second line, 'kaku mayuzumi no', is a pivot in which kaku means both painting the brows and like this, left in kana.
Third line, 'itazura ni', means in vain.
Fourth line, 'kokorobosoku mo', means forlornly, the particle mo adding feeling. It echoes the thin line of brows drawn with ink.
Final line, 'oinikeru kana', means how I have grown old, the perfective nu and exclamatory keri followed by kana.
Author: Minamoto no Toshiyori
Source: Kinyo Wakashu
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