Mandaishū XVIII: 3559

Among poems composed with a character from the Tang poem ‘Looking at my life, ‘tis but a rootless grass upon the shore’ as its initial sound.[1]

つゆを見てくさばのうへとおもひしはときまつほどのいのちなりけり

tsuyu o mite
kusaba no ue to
omoishi wa
toki matsu hodo no
inochi narikeri
As a dewdrop it appears
Resting atop a blade of grass—
So I did think;
Such a short thing
Is life.

Izumi Shikibu

A kuzushiji version of the poem's text.
Created with Soan.

[1] The kanshi in question appears in Wakan rōeishū (II: 789): 観身岸額離根草 論命江頭不繋舟 ‘Thinking on my life, ‘tis but a rootless grass upon the shore; / Thinking on my fate, ‘tis as uncertain as an unmoored boat upon the bank.’  If read as Japanese, this poem would be: mi o kanzureba kishi no hitai ni ne o hanaretaru kusa / mei o ronzureba e no hotori ni tsunagazaru fune. Izumi Shikibu’s poem links with the initial tsu of tsunagazaru, beginning as it does with tsuyu ‘dew’.

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