Kakikurashi koshiji mo miezu furu yuki ni ikade ka toshi no kaeriyuku ran - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

かき暗しこし路も見えず降る雪に
いかでか年の帰りゆくらん

Roma-ji: Kakikurashi koshiji mo miezu furu yuki ni ikade ka toshi no kaeriyuku ran
English Translation: The sky darkened so
that the road to Koshi is lost
in the falling snow:
how then can the passing year
find its way back home?
Meaning: In snow so thick the sky is darkened and neither the road to Koshi nor the road the year came by can be seen, how can the year find its way back?
Commentary: Book Six Winter Poems 469

Headnote: "Composed on the topic 'The Year's End in Snow'"
Composed on the topic of the year's end in snow. In snow so thick that the sky is darkened and neither the road to Koshi nor the road the year came by can be seen, the poet asks, how can the year find its way back? Likening the departing year to a traveler, he worries that it may lose its road home in the driving snow.
The author, "Former Major Counselor Sanenaga," is Fujiwara no Sanenaga, a court noble of the late Heian period who rose to Major Counselor.
The seven poems from 469 to 475, the last poem of the book, are poems on the end of the year. This poem links the snow poems to the poems on the year's end, and through the words "Koshiji" and "kaeru" it also answers "Koshiji o Kaeruyama" in 459 of this book.

First line, "kakikurashi": "kakikurasu" is to darken the whole sky, the snow falling hard.
Second line, "koshiji mo miezu": "koshi" is a pivot word joining "Koshiji," the road to the province of Koshi, and "koshiji," the road the year has come by. It links to "Koshiji" in 459 of this book.
Third line, "furu yuki ni": "because of the falling snow," giving the cause.
Fourth line, "ikade ka toshi no": "ikade ka" asks "how," closing with the attributive "ran" in the last line.
Fifth line, "kaeriyuku ran": "the year must be going back," taking the year's end as the year departing. Poems on the year returning follow, with "kaeramu koto" in 471 and "kaeramashikaba" in 473 of this book.
Author: Fujiwara no Sanenaga
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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