classic waka stream

東路の道の果てなる常陸帯の
かごとばかりも逢はんとぞ思ふ
Roma-ji

Azumaji no michi no hate naru Hitachiobi no kagoto bakari mo awan to zo omou

English Translation
On the eastern road,
at its farthest end, the sash
of Hitachi:
just for a clasp's worth, a pretext,
I would meet you, so I think
Meaning
Like the clasp of the Hitachi sash from the far end of the eastern road, I long to meet you, if only for the briefest pretext.
Commentary
Book Eleven Love Poems I 1052

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the fifth poem of the sequence on love that cannot meet, sung through places and things. Playing on the clasp of the Hitachi sash at the end of the eastern road, the speaker wishes to meet, if only on the slightest pretext. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Anonymous," continues from the preceding poem and indicates a poem whose author's name has not come down to us.

The first line, "Azumaji no," means "of the road from the capital to the east."
The second line, "michi no hate naru," means "at the end of the road," Hitachi being thought of as the province at the end of the eastern road.
In the third line, the Hitachi sash was the sash used in the sash divination at the festival of the Kashima Shrine in Hitachi. A woman wrote the name of the man she loved on a sash and offered it before the god, and the priest tied the sashes together to divine their bond, it is said. The first three lines form a preface leading to "kagoto."
In the fourth line, "kagoto" pivots between "kako," the clasp of the sash, and "kagoto," a mere pretext or excuse.
In the last line, the emphatic "zo" is resolved by "omou": I wish to meet, if only a little. After "aimiteshigana" in the preceding poem, another poem wishing to meet even briefly follows.
Author
Unknown Poet
Source
Shin Kokin Wakashu
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