Ōsaka no seki ni wa hito mo nakarikeri iwama no mizu no moru ni makasete - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

逢坂の関には人もなかりけり
岩間の水のもるにまかせて

Roma-ji: Ōsaka no seki ni wa hito mo nakarikeri iwama no mizu no moru ni makasete
English Translation: At the barrier
of Ōsaka there was no one
standing guard tonight,
leaving it to the water
that slips between the rocks
Meaning: At the Ōsaka Barrier there was no one on guard; it was left to the water trickling between the rocks to keep the watch.
Commentary: Book Eight Travel Poems 522

Headnote: "Composed when passing the Ōsaka Barrier at night"
Composed when passing the Ōsaka Barrier at night. At the Ōsaka Barrier there was no one standing guard; it was left to the water trickling between the rocks, the poet says. At the barrier at night, with no guard in sight and only the sound of spring water seeping from the rocks, he imagines the watch entrusted to the water, conveying the hush of the barrier by night.
The author, "Hafuribe no Narinaka," was of the Hafuribe clan and served as a priest of the Hie Shrine. He took part in many poetry contests of the cloister period.

First line, "Ōsaka no": the Ōsaka Barrier on the border of Yamashiro and Ōmi; the opening poem, 498, also sings of it. The next poem, 523, sings of the same barrier, and all three take up the barrier spring or the water among the rocks.
Second line, "seki ni wa hito mo": "hito" is the guard who keeps the barrier.
Third line, "nakarikeri": the exclamatory "keri" of realization, "there was no guard at all." The poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "iwama no mizu no": the water welling between the rocks, the spring at the Ōsaka Barrier.
Fifth line, "moru ni makasete": "moru" means both that water leaks and that the barrier is guarded. The unmanned barrier is pictured as left in the keeping of the water trickling between the rocks. It is inverted with the third line.
Author: Hafuribe no Narinaka
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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