Kazashi oru miwa no shigeyama kakiwakete aware to zo omou sugi tateru kado - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

かざし折る三輪の繁山かき分けて
あはれとぞ思ふ杉立てる門

Roma-ji: Kazashi oru miwa no shigeyama kakiwakete aware to zo omou sugi tateru kado
English Translation: Breaking sprays to wear,
through the thick groves of Miwa
I push my way in—
how deeply it moves my heart,
the gate where the cedars stand.
Meaning: Pushing through the dense groves of Mount Miwa, where one breaks sprays for adornment, I am moved to the heart by the gate where the cedars stand.
Commentary: Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems II 1644

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the third poem of the sequence on the depths of mountain villages. Having pushed through the dense groves of Mount Miwa, where one breaks sprays for adornment, the poet is deeply moved by the gate where cedars stand. The headnote gives the topic as unknown and records nothing of the circumstances.
The author, "Inpumon-in no Taifu," was a daughter of Fujiwara no Nobunari and a lady-in-waiting to Inpumon-in, Princess Ryōshi, daughter of Emperor Go-Shirakawa.
Mount Miwa in Yamato Province is worshipped as the sacred body of the Ōmiwa Shrine, and its cedars are held to be sacred trees.
The poem takes as its source the anonymous Kokinshū poem "Waga io wa / Miwa no yamamoto / koishiku wa / toburai kimase / sugi tateru kado" ("My hut is at the foot of Mount Miwa; if you long for me, come visit—the gate where the cedars stand"), using its last line unchanged as its own.

The first line, "kazashi oru," means "breaking sprays for adornment." It suggests the cedar sprays used in sacred rites, marking the holy precinct of Miwa.
The second line, "miwa no shigeyama," is Mount Miwa, thick with trees.
The third line, "kakiwakete," means "pushing through the growth." Taking up "nao yama fukaku wakeiran" of the preceding poem, it depicts one actually pushing into the mountain.
The fourth line, "aware to zo omou," means "I am deeply moved." The particle "zo" is closed by the attributive form "omou," and the poem breaks here after the fourth line.
The last line, "sugi tateru kado," ends in a noun, using the last line of the source poem unchanged. To the source poem's invitation, "come visit," it answers with the feeling of one who has actually come.
Author: Inpumon-in no Taifu
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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