Shirazarishi toki dani koeshi ausaka o nado imasara ni ware mayouran - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

知らざりし時だに越えし相坂を
などいまさらにわれ迷ふらん

Roma-ji: Shirazarishi toki dani koeshi ausaka o nado imasara ni ware mayouran
English Translation: Even in the days
before I knew, I crossed
the Slope of Meeting—
why then, now of all times,
am I lost upon the way
Meaning: Even in the days before I knew you, I crossed the Slope of Meeting; why is it that now, of all times, I lose my way?
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems VI 1038

Headnote: "Composed when a woman he had once met would not meet him again."
The poet asks why, having crossed Ōsaka, the Slope of Meeting, even before he knew love, he should now lose his way. Overlaying the "au," meeting, of Ōsaka with lovers' meeting, he laments that the slope he crossed even the first time cannot now be crossed after they have met.
According to the headnote, a woman he had once slept with would not meet him again. The closing poem, 1074, also speaks of Ōsakayama, so the longing to meet is entrusted to Ōsaka.
The poet is listed as anonymous, and the composer's name has not come down to us.

The first line, "Shirazarishi," means "when I did not know," pointing to the days before he knew their meeting.
The second line, "toki dani koeshi," means "even then I crossed," with "dani" an adverbial particle that names a lesser case to imply a greater.
The third line, "ausaka o," means "the Slope of Meeting," overlaying Ōsaka with the meeting of lovers. "Ausakayama" also appears in the fourth line of the closing poem, 1074.
The fourth line, "nado imasara ni," means "why now of all times," with "nado" interrogative and closed by the attributive "ran" in the last line.
The last line, "ware mayouran," means "do I lose my way," with "ran" an auxiliary conjecturing a cause.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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