Furusato wa mishi goto mo arazu ono no e no kuchishi tokoro zo koishikarikeru - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

ふるさとは見しごともあらず斧の柄の
朽ちし所ぞ恋しかりける

Roma-ji: Furusato wa mishi goto mo arazu ono no e no kuchishi tokoro zo koishikarikeru
English Translation: My old home, the capital,
is not as it was when I saw it;
where the axe's handle
rotted as the hours went by,
that is the place I long for.
Meaning: The capital I have come home to is not as I remember it. It is the place where time slipped by until the axe handle rotted, where we played go, that I long for.
Commentary: Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems II 991

Headnote: "Sent after I had returned to the capital, to someone I used to visit and play go with when I was in Tsukushi"
Tomonori sent this, after returning to the capital, to the person he used to visit to play go when he was in Tsukushi. The capital he had not seen for so long was not as it had been, and it is the land of Tsukushi, where he lost track of time over go, that he longs for.
"Where the axe's handle rotted" draws on the Chinese tale of Wang Zhi of the Jin, who watched boys playing go in the mountains until so many years passed that his axe handle rotted, and here refers to the place where they spent their time at go.
The author, "Ki no Tomonori" as written in kana, is Ki no Tomonori, cousin of Ki no Tsurayuki and one of the compilers of the Kokin Wakashū, who died before it was completed. He is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.

The first line, "my old home," refers here to the capital.
The second line, "is not as it was when I saw it," has eight syllables instead of seven; the poem breaks here.
The third line, "the axe's handle," alludes to the Chinese tale.
The fourth line, "rotted as the hours went by," points to Tsukushi, where he lost track of time over go; zo looks ahead to the attributive at the end.
The last line, "that is the place I long for," uses keru, the attributive of the exclamatory keri, completing the zo construction.
Author: Ki no Tomonori
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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