Itowarete kaeri koshiji no shirayama wa iranu ni mayou mono ni zo arikeru - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

厭はれて帰りこしぢの白山は
入らぬに迷ふものにぞありける

Roma-ji: Itowarete kaeri koshiji no shirayama wa iranu ni mayou mono ni zo arikeru
English Translation: Spurned, I came back home
by the road of Koshi, and
the white peak Shirayama—
though I never entered it,
there I lost my way
Meaning: Spurned, I came back along the road of Koshi, and found that Shirayama is a mountain where one loses one's way without ever entering it.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems VI 1063

Headnote: "Sent to a woman."
The poet says that the white mountain of Koshi, on the road he took home after being spurned, is a place where one is lost without ever entering. Likening the road home from her rejection to Shirayama in snowy Koshi, he tells of the bewilderment of love, in which the heart goes astray without even setting foot in the mountain.
According to the headnote, he sent it to a woman. 1066 in this book also speaks of a heart lost in darkness.
The poet, listed as "Minamoto no Yoshi no Ason," is taken to be Minamoto no Yoshi. A son of the Imperial Adviser Minamoto no Noboru, he rose to Middle Captain of the Right Inner Palace Guards, but was implicated in the Shōtai Incident and demoted to Provisional Governor of Izumo.

The first line, "Itowarete," means "spurned," with "re" a passive auxiliary.
The second line, "kaeri koshiji no," means "of the road I came back by," with "koshiji" joining "the road I came" and Koshiji, the road of the northern provinces.
The third line, "shirayama wa," means "Shirayama" in Kaga, sung of as the famous mountain of the Koshi road.
The fourth line, "iranu ni mayou," means "lost without entering," a paradox, since one usually loses the way only after going into the mountains. It also echoes "yami ni mayou o" in the fourth line of 1066 in this book.
The last line, "mono ni zo arikeru," means "such a thing it was," closing the binding particle "zo" with the attributive "keru."
Author: Minamoto no Yoshi
Source: Gosen Wakashu
Prev Poem: Yūsareba omoi zo shigeki matsu hito no komu ya koji ya no sadame nakereba
Next Poem: Hitonami ni aranu waga mi wa naniwa naru ashi no ne nomi zo shita ni nakaruru