Izure o ka shirushi to omowamu Miwa no yama ari to shi aru wa sugi ni zo arikeru - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

いづれをかしるしと思はむ三輪の山
ありとしあるは杉にぞありける

Roma-ji: Izure o ka shirushi to omowamu Miwa no yama ari to shi aru wa sugi ni zo arikeru
English Translation: Which one should I take
as the sign to guide me there?
On Miwa Mountain,
all the trees that stand, I find,
every one of them is cedar.
Meaning: Which should I take as my sign? On Mount Miwa, every tree there is, I find, is a cedar.
Commentary: Book Nineteen Miscellaneous Love Poems 1266

Headnote: "For the Empress's screen in the Engi era"
The poet asks which tree to take as a sign, for on Mount Miwa every tree there is turns out to be a cedar. The headnote shows it was written for a screen of the empress in the Engi era of Emperor Daigo. Drawing on the Kokinshū poem of Miwa that bids a lover come seeking the gate where a cedar stands, it says with wit that when the whole mountain is cedars no one can tell which is the sign, singing of a heart at a loss to find the beloved's house. It shares with 1236 in this book the same device of cedars that fail to serve as a sign.
The author, written as "Tsurayuki," is Ki no Tsurayuki, the leading compiler of the Kokinshū, who wrote its kana preface and the Tosa Diary. He is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.
It takes as its foundation poem the Kokinshū poem in Miscellaneous Poems II, "waga io wa Miwa no yamamoto koishiku wa toburai kimase sugi tateru kado."

First line, "izure o ka," means "which one," with the binding particle "ka" resolved by the attributive "omowamu" in the second line.
Second line, "shirushi to omowamu," means "should I take as the sign," and the poem breaks after this second line. It shares the word "shirushi" with the final line of 1236 in this book, "shirushi dani nashi."
Third line, "Miwa no yama," is Mount Miwa in Yamato, the sacred mountain of the Miwa deity, whose holy tree is the cedar.
Fourth line, "ari to shi aru wa," means "all that there is," with "shi" emphatic.
Final line, "sugi ni zo arikeru," means "is cedar, I find," with the binding particle "zo" resolved by "keru," the attributive form of the past auxiliary "keri." It shares the word "sugi" with the fourth line of 1236 in this book, "aoba no sugi no."
Author: Ki no Tsurayuki
Source: Shui Wakashu
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