Morotomo ni iza to wa iwade Shide no yama nadoka wa hitori koemu to wa seshi

English Translation

Without so much as
saying, come, let us go to-
gether — why did you
mean to cross that mountain of
the dead, and cross it alone

Meaning

Without so much as saying, come, let us go together — why did you mean to cross the mountain of the dead alone?

Commentary

119 No Voice but the Bird's

To the same woman as in the previous section, Fujiwara no Saneki, once Governor of Michinoku and now dead, sent a poem. This was when his illness had grown grave and had then eased a little. He sent "Karakushite oshimitometaru inochi mote au koto o sae yamamu to ya suru", and her reply was "Morotomo ni iza to wa iwade Shide no yama nadoka wa hitori koemu to wa seshi". But on the night he went to her he could not see her, some obstacle perhaps having arisen; and the next morning, having gone home, he sent "Akatsuki wa naku yūtsuke no wabigoe ni otoranu ne o zo nakite kaerishi", and her reply was "Akatsuki no nezame no mimi ni kikishikado tori yori hoka no koe wa sezariki". That is the whole of the section.
Fujiwara no Saneki served as Governor of Michinoku. The woman is the Elder Lady of Kan'in of the hundred and eighteenth section. That these poems appear in the personal collection of Minamoto no Saneakira is thought to be a confusion arising from the similarity of the two men's names.
The setting is the same period of his recovery.
What prompted the poem is his, "Karakushite oshimitometaru inochi mote au koto o sae yamamu to ya suru", with its account of a life held on to.
Afterwards he went to her and could not see her, and the section goes on to the exchange of the next morning. This poem was later included in the Gosen-shū.

The first word means together, the two of them, as in the hundred and thirteenth section.
What follows is: without saying, come, let us go — the grammar of an omission.
The mountain of the dead is the one the dead are said to cross. Taking up his talk of clinging to life, she moves the poem over to dying.
The closing asks why he meant to cross it alone. Cast as a reproach for having nearly died, it charges him with not having invited her along. Like the poem in the hundred and fourth section about vanishing together, it takes an oath to die in company as its premise. It is a poem of concern for a sick man, made in the form of a grievance.

Source

Yamato Monogatari

Other