Nageki koru yamaji wa hito mo shiranaku ni waga kokoro nomi tsune ni yukuran - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

なげきこる山路は人も知らなくに
我が心のみ常に行くらん

Roma-ji: Nageki koru yamaji wa hito mo shiranaku ni waga kokoro nomi tsune ni yukuran
English Translation: The mountain path where
the firewood of grief is cut,
no one else knows it,
so why is it my heart alone
always wanders there?
Meaning: No one else knows the mountain path where the firewood of grief is cut—so why is it that my heart alone always wanders there?
Commentary: Book Fifteen Love Poems V 970

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
The poem asks: why does my heart alone always travel the mountain path where firewood is cut, a path no one else knows? Punning grief with "nageki," firewood, it likens to a mountain path the way of secret grief along which the heart constantly wanders.
The author, "Fujiwara no Aritoki", was a Heian-period official whose career is not known in detail.

First line, "nageki koru," means "cutting firewood," with "nageki" a pivot word joining "nageki," grief, and "nageki," wood for the fire. It shares the same pivot word with the second line of 952 in this book, "nageki no moto o," and also opens with the same words as the first line of 913 in Book Fourteen, "nageki koru."
Second line, "yamaji wa hito mo," means "that mountain path, others too."
Third line, "shiranaku ni," means "though they do not know it," with "naku ni" a negative adversative.
Fourth line, "waga kokoro nomi," means "my heart alone." It contrasts "hito," others, in the second line with "waga kokoro," my heart, in the fourth.
Final line, "tsune ni yukuran," means "why does it always go there," with "ran" conjecturing a cause.
Author: Fujiwara no Aritoki
Source: Shui Wakashu
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