Azumaji mo toshi mo sue ni ya narinu ran yuki furinikeri Shirakawa no seki - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

東路も年も末にやなりぬらん
雪降りにけり白河の関

Roma-ji: Azumaji mo toshi mo sue ni ya narinu ran yuki furinikeri Shirakawa no seki
English Translation: Has the eastern road
reached its end, and has the year
too come to its close?
the snow has fallen now
upon the Shirakawa Barrier
Meaning: Has the eastern road come to its end, and the year to its close as well? Snow has fallen on the Shirakawa Barrier.
Commentary: Book Eight Travel Poems 543

Headnote: "Composed on the theme of the year's end while traveling"
Composed on the topic "the year's end while traveling." Have the eastern road and the year alike come to their end? Snow has fallen on the Shirakawa Barrier, the poet says. Reaching the gateway to Michinoku at the far end of his road, he learns from the snow that the year too is drawing to a close, overlaying the length of the journey with the passing of time.
The author, "Sōzu Inshō," was a monk, the son of Fujiwara no Nagasuke. Sōzu is one of the ranks for monks.
A Goshūi Wakashū poem by the Monk Nōin says that though he left the capital with the spring haze, the autumn wind is already blowing at the Shirakawa Barrier. This poem draws on it, and against Nōin's autumn wind it sings of the barrier when the season has moved on to snow.

First line, "Azumaji mo": "Azumaji" is the road to the eastern provinces, and "mo" pairs it with "toshi mo" in the second line, "both the road and the year."
Second line, "toshi mo sue ni ya": "sue" means both the end of the road and the end of the year. The interrogative "ya" closes with the attributive "ran" in the third line.
Third line, "narinu ran": "nu" is the perfective and "ran" the present conjecture, "have they come to it?" The poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "yuki furinikeri": "ni" is the continuative of the perfective "nu" and "keri" exclamatory, "snow has fallen." The poem pauses here as well.
Fifth line, "Shirakawa no seki": the barrier at the gateway to Michinoku, a poetic place, ending on a noun. It is the same "Shirakawa no seki" that closes Nōin's poem.
Author: Inshō
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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