山守の里へ通ひし山道ぞ
茂くなりける忘れけらしも
茂くなりける忘れけらしも
- Roma-ji
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Yamamori no sato e kayoishi yamamichi zo shigeku narikeru wasurekerashi mo
- English Translation
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The mountain warden's
path that led down to the village,
that mountain pathway—
it has grown thick with grasses;
it seems he has forgotten
- Meaning
- The mountain path the warden used to take down to the village has grown thick with grass—it seems he has forgotten it.
- Commentary
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Book Seven Miscellaneous Poems 1261
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Occasional Poems"
Seeing the mountain path the warden used to take to the village overgrown, the speaker concludes he must have forgotten it. It is understood as an allegory of a woman lamenting a man who no longer comes to visit.
It is one of the occasional poems. It sees the end of a love in a visiting path left to the grass. It comes from the Old Poetry Collection. The poet is unknown.
The first line, "The mountain warden's," refers to the keeper of the mountain.
The second line, "path that led down to the village," means the road he used to travel.
In the third line, the particle "zo" is answered by the attributive "keru" in the fourth line.
The fourth line, "it has grown thick with grasses," closes the "zo ... keru" construction, and the poem pauses here.
In the final line, "kerashi" is inference from evidence: from the overgrown path the speaker infers that the visits have ceased.
- Source
- Manyoshu
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Tokinaranu madara no koromo kihoshiki ka shima no harihara toki ni aranedomo
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Ashihiki no yamatsubaki saku yatsuo koe shishi matsu kimi ga iwaizuma kamo