神無月時雨ばかりを身に添へて
知らぬ山路に入るぞ悲しき
知らぬ山路に入るぞ悲しき
- Roma-ji
-
Kannazuki shigure bakari o mi ni soete shiranu yamaji ni iru zo kanashiki
- English Translation
-
The Godless Month—
with only the winter showers
to walk at my side,
into an unknown mountain road
I go, and how sad it is
- Meaning
- In the tenth month, with only the showers to keep me company, how sad it is to enter an unknown mountain path.
- Commentary
-
Book Eight Winter Poems 453
Headnote: "On going into the mountains."
The poet says that in the tenth month, with only the showers for company, it is sad to enter an unknown mountain path. It conveys the forlornness of going into the mountains alone, soaked by cold showers with no other companion.
According to the headnote, the poem was composed on the point of entering the mountains. It overlays the lot of a monk going into the mountains for religious practice with the showers of early winter.
The poet, called "Zōki Hōshi," was a monk and poet of the mid-Heian period. His personal collection, the Zōki Hōshi shū, survives, and he is counted among the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals of the Middle Ages. Whether the Zōki of the Gosen Wakashū is the same person as the Zōki of the personal collection, however, is disputed.
The first line, "Kannazuki," is another name for the tenth lunar month, a word placed again and again in this book.
In the second line, "bakari" is a restrictive particle: "only the showers."
The third line, "mi ni soete," means "taking them as my companion," likening the showers to a fellow traveler.
The fourth line, "shiranu yamaji ni," means "into a mountain road I do not know."
In the last line, the particle "zo" and the attributive "kanashiki" form a kakarimusubi pattern: "it is sad to go in."
- Author
- Zōki
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
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Tanomu ki mo karehatenureba kannazuki shigure ni nomi mo nururu koro kana
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Momijiba wa oshiki nishiki to mishikadomo shigure to tomo ni furidete zo koshi