Furu mama ni ato taenureba Suzukayama yuki koso seki no tozashi narikere - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

降るままに跡絶えぬれば鈴鹿山
雪こそ関の鎖しなりけれ

Roma-ji: Furu mama ni ato taenureba Suzukayama yuki koso seki no tozashi narikere
English Translation: As the snow falls on
all the tracks of travelers fade
upon Suzuka Mountain:
it is the snow itself that bars
the gate of the barrier here
Meaning: As the snow falls, all trace of travelers is lost on Mount Suzuka; it is the snow itself that bars the gate of the barrier.
Commentary: Book Six Winter Poems 467

Headnote: "Composed on the topic 'Snow Fills the Road Through the Barrier'"
Composed on the topic of snow filling the road through the barrier. As the snow falls, the poet says, all trace of travelers is lost on Mount Suzuka, so that it is the snow itself that bars the gate of the barrier. A barrier station is meant to control traffic with its gates, but here the snow cutting off passage is likened to the snow itself closing the barrier's gate.
The author, "Naidaijin," the Palace Minister, is Fujiwara no Yoshimichi, eldest son of Regent Kujō Kanezane, who rose to Palace Minister but died young.
Poems on snow continue from 445 to 467. This poem closes the group, gathering at a barrier station the conceit, running through 458 and 465, of snow erasing human tracks.

First line, "furu mama ni": "as the snow falls on."
Second line, "ato taenureba": "ato" are the tracks of passersby, "nure" is the perfective form of the perfective "nu," and "ba" gives a fixed condition. Like "ato mo tae" in 458 and "ato taete" in 465 of this book, snow erases human tracks.
Third line, "Suzukayama": a mountain in Ise Province, a poetic place where the Suzuka Barrier stood on the Tōkaidō highway.
Fourth line, "yuki koso seki no": the emphatic "koso" closes with "kere" in the perfective form in the last line, stressing "the snow, not people."
Fifth line, "tozashi narikere": "tozashi" is the closing of a door, or its bolt. "Kere," the perfective form of the exclamatory "keri," shows the realization that it was the snow that barred the barrier gate.
Author: Fujiwara no Yoshimichi
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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