Yo no naka wa uki mi ni soeru kage nare ya omoisutsuredo hanarezarikeri - Kinyo Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

世の中は憂き身に添へる影なれや
思ひ捨つれど離れざりけり

Roma-ji: Yo no naka wa uki mi ni soeru kage nare ya omoisutsuredo hanarezarikeri
English Translation: Is this world of ours
a shadow that clings beside
this body of grief?
Though I try to cast it off
it never leaves me at all
Meaning: Is the world a shadow clinging to this sorrowful self of mine? However I try to cast it off, it never leaves me.
Commentary: Book Nine Miscellaneous Poems I 595

Is the world, the poet asks, a shadow clinging to this sorrowful body? Though he tries to cast it off, it does not leave him. He laments that, much as he wishes to renounce the world, he cannot part from it, just as a shadow cannot part from the body.
Where poem 576 in this book sang that dear ones do not stay beside one but tears never fall behind, this poem sings that the world clings like a shadow however one tries to leave it.
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, 'yo no naka wa', means this world.
Second line, 'uki mi ni soeru', means clinging to this sorrowful self, using the attributive of the continuative ri. It contrasts with sowanedomo in poem 576 in this book.
Third line, 'kage nare ya', means is it a shadow, the realis of the copula nari with ya expressing a question; the poem breaks after the third line.
Fourth line, 'omoisutsuredo', means though I try to cast it off, using the concessive do.
Final line, 'hanarezarikeri', means it does not leave, the negative zu followed by the exclamatory keri, closing with a lament for a world that clings like a shadow.
Author: Minamoto no Toshiyori
Source: Kinyo Wakashu
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