Saritomo to nao au koto o tanomu kana shide no yamaji o koenu wakare wa

English Translation

Even so, I say,
still I trust that we will meet
and meet once again—
for this parting is not one
that crosses the mountain of death.

Meaning

Even so, I still count on our meeting again, for this is not a parting that crosses the mountain road of death.

Commentary

Book Nine Parting Poems 887

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed when setting out to practice austerities in a distant place, as people grieved at the parting."
This is the second poem of the sequence on partings at setting out for religious practice. Since this is not a parting that crosses the mountain road of death, the poet still counts on meeting again. The original text gives no author's name; following the preceding poem, it is by Saigyō.
The author's lay name was Satō Norikiyo; a guard of the retired emperor Toba, he took the tonsure, traveled through the provinces, and left the personal collection Sankashū.
The scene is his departure for religious practice, and the place is the capital.
The direct occasion was, as with the preceding poem, the grief of those who saw him off as he set out for austerities in a distant place.

The first line, "saritomo to," means "even so." Taking up the preceding poem's admission that the time of return is unknown, it turns from there.
The second line, "nao au koto o," means "still, that we shall meet."
In the third line, "tanomu kana," "tanomu" is a quadrigrade verb meaning to count on something. Where the lower bigrade "tanome" of the preceding poem means to make another rely, here the same word means to rely oneself, so it serves both the one addressed and the speaker.
The fourth line, "shide no yamaji o," is the mountain road said to be crossed by the dead. It is set down as the measure against which a parting among the living is judged.
The last line, "koenu wakare wa," means "a parting that does not cross it," the negative "nu" showing that the boundary of life and death does not divide them. Where 872 and 881 doubt whether this parting may be the last journey, this poem relies on the fact that it is not a parting by death, treating the same theme from the opposite side.

Author

Saigyō

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other