Tarachine wa kurokami nagara ika nareba ko wa mayu shiroki ito to naruramu - Kinyo Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

たらちねは黒髪ながらいかなれば
子はまゆ白き糸となるらむ

Roma-ji: Tarachine wa kurokami nagara ika nareba ko wa mayu shiroki ito to naruramu
English Translation: The parent still keeps
black hair upon his head, so
what could be the cause
that the child's brows have become
like white threads spun from cocoons
Meaning: The parent still has black hair, so why is it that the child's eyebrows have turned to white threads?
Commentary: Book Ten Miscellaneous Poems II 637

The parent still has black hair, so why have the child's eyebrows turned white as thread? Drawing on the parable in the Lotus Sutra's chapter on the emerging from the earth, that it is like a young father pointing to a hundred-year-old man and calling him his son, the father young and the son old, the poem sings of the wonder of the Buddha, newly enlightened, declaring that countless aged bodhisattvas were disciples he himself had taught.
Joining mayu, eyebrows, with mayu, cocoons, and tying it to ito, thread, as an associated word, the poem sees white eyebrows as white thread.
The author, Eien, was a son of Fujiwara no Nagasuke, Senior Assistant Minister of the Treasury, and as a monk of Kōfukuji rose to Provisional Archbishop. Famed for his poem on the cuckoo, he was called the Archbishop of the First Song.

First line, 'tarachine wa', means the parent, pointing to the young father of the sutra's parable.
Second line, 'kurokami nagara', means while still black-haired, the particle nagara expressing contrast.
Third line, 'ika nareba', means for what reason, answering ramu in the final line to ask after the cause.
Fourth line, 'ko wa mayu shiroki', means the child's brows are white, joining mayu, eyebrows, with mayu, cocoons, from which thread is drawn. Kurokami, black hair, in the second line and shiroki, white, form a contrast of color.
Final line, 'ito to naruramu', means why have they become threads, closing with ramu inferring a cause. Cocoon and thread are associated words.
Author: Yoen
Source: Kinyo Wakashu
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