憂かりしに秋は尽きぬと思ひしを
今年も虫の音こそなかるれ
今年も虫の音こそなかるれ
- Roma-ji
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Ukarishi ni aki wa tsukinu to omoishi o kotoshi mo mushi no ne koso nakarure
- English Translation
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Since the time of grief
I thought autumn had run out,
so I had believed,
yet this year, too, the insects
set me crying aloud again
- Meaning
- I thought that autumn had come to an end in that sorrowful time, yet this year too the insects sing, and I cannot help but weep aloud.
- Commentary
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Book Ten Miscellaneous Poems II 608
The poet had thought that with last autumn's sorrow, autumn itself had come to an end, yet this year again, drawn by the insects' voices, she cannot help crying aloud. A year after a sorrowful parting in autumn, the poem expresses grief that has still not run out by overlaying the insects' singing with the poet's own weeping.
Moving on from the flowers and reeds of the poems up to 607, this poem shifts the season to autumn insects as it carries on the theme of mourning.
First line, 'ukarishi ni', means at that sorrowful time, the adjective ushi with the attributive of the past ki, pointing to the autumn in which grief came.
Second line, 'aki wa tsukinu to', means that autumn had run out, using the perfective nu; the poet thought autumn itself had ended along with the grief.
Third line, 'omoishi o', means though I had thought, the particle o expressing contrast.
Fourth line, 'kotoshi mo mushi no', means this year too the insects, setting this year against the last.
Final line, 'ne koso nakarure', means I cannot help crying aloud, joining naku, the insects' singing, with naku, a person's weeping. The particle koso is answered by rure, the realis of the spontaneous ru.
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
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Seki mo aenu namida no kawa wa hayakeredo mi no ukikusa wa nagarezarikeri