Idete inishi ato dani imada kawaranu ni ta ga kayoiji to ima wa naruran - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

出でていにし跡だにいまだ変はらぬに
誰が通ひ路と今はなるらん

Roma-ji: Idete inishi ato dani imada kawaranu ni ta ga kayoiji to ima wa naruran
English Translation: The traces I left
when I went away from you
are not yet changed;
whose path is it now become,
this road I used to travel?
Meaning: Even the footprints I left when I went away have not yet changed; whose path to you has it now become?
Commentary: Book Fifteen Love Poems V 1409

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the fourth poem of the sequence on broken vows. Though the traces he left when he went away have not yet faded, he asks whose path it has now become, suspecting the woman's change of heart. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Narihira Ason," is Ariwara no Narihira. A son of Prince Abo, son of Emperor Heizei, he was one of the Six Poetic Immortals and the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

The first line, "idete inishi," runs to six syllables, one over the count, and means "went away and left."
The second line, "ato dani imada," means "even the traces, still." "Dani" means "even."
The third line, "kawaranu ni," means "though they have not changed." Taking up the constancy of "itsu mo wasurezu" in the preceding poem, it says only the traces remain unchanged.
The fourth line, "ta ga kayoiji to," means "as whose path?", suspecting another man.
The last line, "ima wa naruran," means "has it now become?" Where the preceding poem vowed never to forget, this one sets unchanged traces against a changed heart, suspecting the other's change of heart.
Author: Ariwara no Narihira
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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