Michinoku no iwade shinobu wa ezo shiranu kakitsukushite yo tsubo no ishibumi - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

みちのくのいはでしのぶはえぞ知らぬ
書き尽くしてよ壺の碑

Roma-ji: Michinoku no iwade shinobu wa ezo shiranu kakitsukushite yo tsubo no ishibumi
English Translation: Like Iwade and Shinobu
in far Michinoku, what's kept
unsaid I cannot know;
write it all down to the end
like the Tsubo stone inscription.
Meaning: What you keep hidden and unspoken—like Iwade and Shinobu of Michinoku—I cannot possibly know. Write it all down, as on the inscribed stone of Tsubo.
Commentary: Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems III 1786

Headnote: "In reply to Former Archbishop Jien, who had written that he found it hard to set down in a letter all that he felt."
A poem in an exchange about words sent in writing. What is kept unspoken cannot be known, so write it all out, like the inscribed stone of Tsubo. According to the headnote, it replies to Jien, who had written that he could not say all he felt in a letter; weaving in place names of Michinoku, it asks him to write freely.
The author, "Former Captain of the Right Yoritomo," is Minamoto no Yoritomo. A son of Minamoto no Yoshitomo, he founded the shogunate at Kamakura and was appointed Captain of the Right Palace Guards and Seii Taishōgun.
Iwade and Shinobu are both place names in Mutsu Province and famous poetic places. The Tsubo stone is a poetic place said to have been in Mutsu, sung of as a stone inscribed with characters.

The first line, "Michinoku no," means "of Mutsu Province." It leads into the place names that follow and also suggests the poet's own place in the east.
In the second line, "iwade shinobu wa," "iwade" is a pivot word meaning both "without saying" and the Mutsu place name Iwade; "shinobu" is a pivot word meaning both "keeping hidden in the heart" and the Mutsu place name Shinobu.
The third line, "ezo shiranu," means "cannot possibly know." "E ... nu" expresses impossibility, and "ezo" also puns on the Ezo people of the north. It closes the kakari-musubi of "zo" with the attributive "nu," and the poem pauses here.
The fourth line, "kakitsukushite yo," means "write it all out." It answers Jien's words that he could hardly say it all.
The last line, "tsubo no ishibumi," is a poetic place in Mutsu, a stone inscribed with characters. Pairing "writing it all out" with the carving of characters on a stone, it gathers the poem together with place names of Michinoku.
Author: Minamoto no Yoritomo
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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