Tayori araba ika de miyako e tsugeyaran kyō shirakawa no seki wa koenu to - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

便りあらばいかで都へ告げやらん
今日白河の関は越えぬと

Roma-ji: Tayori araba ika de miyako e tsugeyaran kyō shirakawa no seki wa koenu to
English Translation: If there were a way,
how I would send word somehow
back to the capital:
that today I have crossed
the Barrier of Shirakawa.
Meaning: If there were any means, how I would somehow send word to the capital that today I crossed the Shirakawa Barrier.
Commentary: Book Six Parting Poems 339

Headnote: "When I crossed the Shirakawa Barrier in Mutsu"
On the day he crossed the Shirakawa Barrier, the gateway to Mutsu, the poet wishes that, if there were any means, he could somehow let the capital know. Into the simple wish to send word he puts both his emotion at crossing a border far from the capital and his thoughts for the people there. According to the headnote, it was composed when he crossed the Shirakawa Barrier in Mutsu. The Shirakawa Barrier is a famed place in Mutsu that later poets such as the monk Nōin continued to sing of.
Taira no Kanemori, of a Taira line descended from Emperor Kōkō, was a poet of the mid-Heian period. He is known for his performance at the palace poetry contest of the fourth year of Tentoku and is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "tayori araba," means "if there were a means," the irrealis form with "ba" expressing a supposition.
Second line, "ika de miyako e," means "somehow, to the capital."
Third line, "tsugeyaran," means "I would send word," with "n" an auxiliary of intention. The poem pauses here. Like the final line of 353 at the close of the book, "kototsute yaran," it sings of the wish to send word from the road to the capital.
Fourth line, "kyō shirakawa no," means "today, of Shirakawa," the Shirakawa Barrier at the entrance to Mutsu.
Final line, "seki wa koenu to," means "that I have crossed the barrier," with "nu" a perfective auxiliary. By inversion it gives afterward what he wishes to tell. The next poem, 340, is also a poem sent to one going down to Mutsu.
Author: Taira no Kanemori
Source: Shui Wakashu
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