Yamazato wa yo no uki yori wa sumiwabinu koto no hoka naru mine no arashi ni - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

山里は世の憂きよりは住みわびぬ
ことのほかなる峰の嵐に

Roma-ji: Yamazato wa yo no uki yori wa sumiwabinu koto no hoka naru mine no arashi ni
English Translation: The mountain village—
more than the sorrows of the world
hard to dwell in now,
all because beyond all thought
the storm blows from the peaks.
Meaning: The mountain village has become harder to live in than even the sorrows of the world—all because of the storm off the peaks, fiercer than I ever imagined.
Commentary: Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems II 1623

Headnote: "On the topic 'Storm at a Mountain Dwelling,' at a poetry contest held at Toba."
This is the third poem of the sequence on wind blowing about a mountain dwelling. The mountain village, sought as an escape from the world's sorrows, has become harder to live in than the world itself because of an unexpectedly fierce storm off the peaks. According to the headnote, it was composed on the topic "Storm at a Mountain Dwelling" at a poetry contest held at Toba.
The author, "Gishūmon-in no Tango," was a lady-in-waiting who served Gishūmon-in Ninshi, empress of Emperor Go-Toba.
Toba lies south of the capital, where the retired emperors built a detached palace.

The first line, "yamazato wa," presents the mountain village as the topic.
The second line, "yo no uki yori wa," means "more than the sorrows of the world," setting the measure by which the village is compared with the world.
The third line, "sumiwabinu," means "it has grown hard to live in." The poem breaks here after the third line with the perfective "nu."
The fourth line, "koto no hoka naru," means "beyond all expectation, exceptional."
The last line, "mine no arashi ni," means "because of the storm blowing down from the peaks." Through inversion, the reason for the hardship is revealed at the close. The reversal—the village of retreat proving harder than the world—echoes "itoite mo nao itowashiki yo" in 1620 in this book.
Author: Gishumon-in no Tango
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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