Hyakunin Isshu Oracle

No.75 藤原基俊「契りおきし させもが露を 命にて あはれ今年の 秋もいぬめり」

契りおきし させもが露を 命にて あはれ今年の 秋もいぬめり

藤原基俊

living off one drop of dew — another autumn gone

living off one drop of dew — another autumn gone

キーワードKeywords

Promise as DewAnother Year GoneWaiting on a PatronThin HopeAutumn Passing
★★ Miscellaneous

藤原基俊Fujiwara no Mototoshi — No. 75 公卿Court Noble

The conservative counterpart to Toshiyori, who wrote of the years he spent waiting on a patron’s unkept promise.

ちぎりおきし させもがつゆを いのちにて あはれことしの あきもいぬめり

Chigiri okishi Sasemo ga tsuyu o Inochi ni te Aware kotoshi no Aki mo inu meri

現代語訳Modern Japanese

コンセプトConcept

情景The Scene

A promise made once, years ago, thin as dew on a leaf, and he has been living off it. Autumn is ending again. Nothing was granted this year either. He says it politely, which makes it worse.

日本の美意識Japanese Aesthetic

Wabi (Beauty of the Insufficient)

Sustenance is described in the smallest possible quantity — one bead of dew — against the largest available span, a year. Scale mismatch is how you show a hope that should have been abandoned.