Sumiwabite ware sae noki no shinobugusa shinobu katagata shigeki yado kana - Kinyo Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

住みわびて我さへ軒の忍ぶ草
しのぶかたがた繁き宿かな

Roma-ji: Sumiwabite ware sae noki no shinobugusa shinobu katagata shigeki yado kana
English Translation: Weary of living,
now even I leave behind
the eaves' fern of longing,
a house where things to remember
grow thick in so many ways
Meaning: Weary of dwelling here, even I now leave, but like the longing-fern thick along the eaves, this house is crowded with things to remember.
Commentary: Book Nine Miscellaneous Poems I 591

Weary of living here, the poet says, even she now leaves, but like the shinobu fern thick along the eaves, the house is full of things to remember with longing. On leaving a home long lived in, she expresses through the shinobu fern growing on the neglected eaves the many memories tied to it.
It is said that she wrote this on a pillar when she gave up the house to another and moved out, and that people who later visited the house were moved on reading it.
The author, Suō no Naishi, was the daughter of Taira no Munenaka, Governor of Suō, and served four emperors from Go-Reizei to Horikawa. One of her poems appears in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.

First line, 'sumiwabite', means weary of living here, wabu meaning to be at a loss.
Second line, 'ware sae noki no', means even I, of the eaves, the particle sae adding the sense of even I, besides others who have left.
Third line, 'shinobugusa', is a kind of fern that grows on the eaves of old houses, showing the house's neglect. Its repeated sound leads to shinobu in the fourth line.
Fourth line, 'shinobu katagata', means the many things to remember with longing, overlaying shinobu, to recall fondly, on the shinobu of the fern in the third line.
Final line, 'shigeki yado kana', means a house so full, shigeshi overlaying the thick growth of the fern and the abundance of memories. It closes with the exclamatory kana.
Author: Suo no Naishi
Source: Kinyo Wakashu
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