Omou dochi tokoro mo kaezu sumihenan tachi hanarenaba koishikaru beshi - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

思ふどちところもかへず住みへなん
たちはなれなば恋しかるべし

Roma-ji: Omou dochi tokoro mo kaezu sumihenan tachi hanarenaba koishikaru beshi
English Translation: Dear ones, let us stay
together, never changing
the place where we dwell;
should we part and go our ways,
surely we would long for each other.
Meaning: Dear friends, let us go on living together without changing our dwelling; if we were to part, we would surely long for one another.
Commentary: Book Seven Names of Things 416

Headnote: "Tochi, tokoro, tachibana (horse chestnut, wild yam, mandarin orange)"
The poet says let us, dear friends, go on living together without changing our dwelling, for if we parted we would surely miss one another. While singing of reluctance to part from those dear to him, the poem hides within itself the three names "tochi," "tokoro," and "tachibana" given in the headnote. The three names in the headnote are the things hidden in the poem.
The author, written as Sukemi, is Fujiwara no Sukemi. A son of Fujiwara no Hirotsune, he was a mid-Heian poet known as Tōroku. He excelled at poems hiding the names of things, and his personal collection is the Tōrokushū.

First line, "omou dochi," means "dear companions," hiding the name "tochi" in "dochi."
Second line, "tokoro mo kaezu," means "without changing our dwelling," playing on "tokoro" as place and as wild yam.
Third line, "sumihenan," means "let us go on living," with "na" the irrealis of the perfective auxiliary "nu" followed by an auxiliary of intention. The poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "tachi hanarenaba," means "if we were to part," hiding the name "tachibana" in "tachi hana." The device of hiding several names in one poem also appears in the zodiac poems of 429 and 430 of this book.
Final line, "koishikaru beshi," means "we would surely long for one another," with "beshi" conjectural.
Author: Fujiwara no Sukemi
Source: Shui Wakashu
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