Nakina nomi Tatsuta no yama no aotsuzura mata kuru hito mo mienu tokoro ni - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

なき名のみたつたの山の青つづら
又くる人も見えぬ所に

Roma-ji: Nakina nomi Tatsuta no yama no aotsuzura mata kuru hito mo mienu tokoro ni
English Translation: Only groundless rumor
rises, as on Tatsuta's slopes
the green vines wind on,
though no one comes winding back
to this place where none is seen.
Meaning: Only groundless rumor rises, like Mount Tatsuta, though this is a place where no one is seen coming again, as one draws in the green vines.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 699

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
The poem says that only a groundless rumor rises, though this is a place where no one is seen coming again, as one winds in green vines. Pivoting "tatsu" on a rumor "rising" and Mount Tatsuta, and "kuru" on "winding" vines and a person "coming," it laments the injustice of rumor rising amid a loneliness no visitor breaks. Following the preceding poem, 698, it belongs to the sequence on groundless rumor.

First line, "nakina nomi," means "only a groundless rumor." It is the same line as the first line of the next poem, 700, "nakina nomi."
Second line, "Tatsuta no yama no," is a pivot word: "tatsu" means a rumor "rising" and Mount Tatsuta, a poetic place in Yamato.
Third line, "aotsuzura," is a green vine growing in the mountains, leading into "kuru," to wind.
Fourth line, "mata kuru hito mo," is a pivot word: "kuru" means "winding" in the vines and a person "coming."
Final line, "mienu tokoro ni," means "in a place where none is seen," turning back in inverted order to the lament of the first line.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Shui Wakashu
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