うすものや共に古びし桐箪笥

うすものや共に古びし桐箪笥
usumono ya tomo ni furubishi kiritansu( should be kiridansu)
my thin robes -
the paulownia chest is getting old
with them
Mori Takeko 森たけ子
薄物は確かにthin robesないしthin robeだが、
この場合は特定の薄物である羽二重の婚礼用着物と
打掛であろう。そこで、the wedding robe and gown
である。
次に、「古びし」とあり、現在完了形。
下の桐箪笥はbrand newなため、この俳句の意味に
そぐわないものとなっている。
羽二重の婚礼衣装は古びてしまった桐箪笥にある。
この婚礼衣装も、それを収納している桐箪笥も
「わたくし」である俳句の詠み手ではなく、
元来は詠み手の母のものであり、その意味では
her wedding robe and gownなのだが、詠み手が
結婚することが想定されていたため、娘である
詠み手のものmy wedding robe and gownでもあった。
しかし、未婚のままだった。
桐の箪笥の色の古びた様子から箪笥の中にある
婚礼衣装も古びていること、詠み手も盛りを過ぎて
しまったことを詠（うた）っている。
It is true that 薄物 can be a thin robe or thin robes.
However, more specific thin robe and gown are referrd to
in this ku, i.e. the wedding robe and gown her mother
wore at her wedding and kept in her paulownia drawers for ages;
they were meant to be for her daughter or the poet of this ku.
The poet has remained single. Looking at the old (vintage if not
antique) drawers, the poet thinks "The wedding robe and
gown must have grown old and so have I." The sense one has
when one realizes "je suis passée" can be the vital element for
composing this ku. One must capture the fragility and vulnerability
of paulonia, silk cloth and above all the poet's emotions, when
one reads this haiku poem.

Thus my renditon runs:
the wedding robe and gown
in my mother's old paulonia drawers
must have passed the best season

I noticed that there can be another reading of this ku;
the paulownia chest has been hers from the beginning.
In other words, she once engaged and was to marry but
there has been no marriage at all, thus all her wedding
attirement--they say the word is now obosolete--has been
aging with the paulownia chest, which used to be new.
There must have been a fatal adieu, which might have
been caused by death, for example.

I feel this ku offers different stories to tell.