Looking at my hand last night, it occurred to me that the “hand” in this famous tanka by Takuboku Ishikawa might be the back of the hand, not the palm.

はたらけど

はたらけど猶（なほ）わが生活（くらし）楽にならざり

ぢっと手を見る

I work,

I work, but my life is not getting any easier

I look at my hand

(translated by me)

My palm has expression and interacts with me. On the other hand, the back of my hand is somewhat distant, like someone else's back.

I feel this way because there is a division between 'I who work' and 'I who look at my hand'.

The first half of this tanka is the story of 'I as a worker in society,' but in the second half, the story suddenly becomes about 'just me.' I think 'just me' looks like Lange's 'Mozart at the Piano'.