Ika ni sen shizu ga sonou no oku no take kakikomoru tomo yo no naka zo kashi - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

いかにせん賤が園生の奥の竹
かき籠るともよの中ぞかし

Roma-ji: Ika ni sen shizu ga sonou no oku no take kakikomoru tomo yo no naka zo kashi
English Translation: What am I to do?
Like the bamboo at the back
of a poor man's yard,
though I shut myself away,
it is still a world of joints.
Meaning: What am I to do? Though I shut myself away like the bamboo at the back of a humble garden, it is still the world—as bamboo is still made of joints.
Commentary: Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems II 1673

Headnote: "When I composed a hundred-poem sequence of personal reflections."
This is the second poem of the sequence of reflections longing for the past. Though one shuts oneself away like bamboo at the back of a humble garden, it is still the world. According to the headnote, it was composed for a hundred-poem sequence of personal reflections.
The author, "Kōtaigōgū no Daibu Shunzei," was a son of Fujiwara no Toshitada and the father of Teika. He compiled the Senzaishū. He took holy orders and was named Shakua.
The Hundred Poems of Reflection is a hundred-poem sequence Shunzei composed in his youth, lamenting his lack of advancement.

The first line, "ika ni sen," means "what am I to do?" It opens by casting out a lament.
The second line, "shizu ga sonou no," means "of a humble person's garden."
The third line, "oku no take," is the bamboo growing at the back of the garden. The poem breaks at this noun after the third line, a figure for shutting oneself far away.
The fourth line, "kakikomoru tomo," means "even if I shut myself away." "Kaki" is a prefix that strengthens the tone.
The last line, "yo no naka zo kashi," pivots on "yo," both "world" and the "joint" of bamboo. "Zo kashi" presses the point strongly. Through the bamboo joint, it shows that wherever one retreats, the world cannot be escaped. Following the transformed world of the preceding poem, it sings of a world that cannot be fled.
Author: Fujiwara no Shunzei
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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