Izuku to mo tokoro sadamenu shirakumo no kakaranu yama wa araji to zo omou - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

いづくとも所定めぬ白雲の
かからぬ山はあらじとぞ思ふ

Roma-ji: Izuku to mo tokoro sadamenu shirakumo no kakaranu yama wa araji to zo omou
English Translation: Nowhere does it stay,
settling on no single place,
the drifting white cloud;
there is no mountain, I think,
it does not cling to in turn.
Meaning: I think there is no mountain that the white cloud, which settles in no one place, does not cling to.
Commentary: Book Nineteen Miscellaneous Love Poems 1217

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poet says there is surely no mountain the white cloud, settling in no fixed place, does not cling to. Likening one whose heart goes to anyone at all to a white cloud that hangs on every mountain, it reproaches that fickle heart. It shares with the next poem, 1218, the image of a white cloud that clings.

First line, "izuku to mo," means "anywhere," running into "tokoro sadamenu" in the second line.
Second line, "tokoro sadamenu," means "settling in no fixed place," likening it to a fickle heart that fixes on no single partner.
Third line, "shirakumo no," means "the white cloud," a figure for the fickle one. It shares this word with the first line of the next poem, 1218, "shirakumo no."
Fourth line, "kakaranu yama wa," means "a mountain it does not cling to," laying the cloud hanging on a mountain over a person's heart attaching to a partner.
Final line, "araji to zo omou," means "there is none, I think," with "ji" negative conjecture and the binding particle "zo" resolved by the attributive "omou."
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Shui Wakashu
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