Nishikigi no chizuka ni kagiri nakariseba nao korizuma ni tatemashi mono o - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

錦木の千束に限りなかりせば
なほ懲りずまに立てましものを

Roma-ji: Nishikigi no chizuka ni kagiri nakariseba nao korizuma ni tatemashi mono o
English Translation: Had there been no limit
at a thousand bundles of
brocade-wood courting staves,
undaunted I would still go on
setting them up at her gate
Meaning: If the bundles of courting wood were not limited to a thousand, I would go on, undaunted, setting them up at her gate.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 726

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
If there were no limit of a thousand bundles of brocade-wood, he says, I would still go on, undaunted, setting them up. In Michinoku, it was said, a man set up painted brocade-wood at a woman's gate as a token of courtship; if she accepted him she took it in, and if not he kept setting it up until there were a thousand bundles. Drawing on this custom, he says that, were it not for the rule that ends at a thousand, he would court her forever, expressing a love that never runs out.
The author, "Kamo no Shigeyasu," was a chief priest of the Kamo Wakeikazuchi Shrine. He held poetry contests at the Kamo Shrine and compiled the Tsukimōde Wakashū, becoming the center of the poetry circle of the shrine families.
The last line, "tatemashi mono o," like "iwamashi mono o" in the last line of 740 of this book, adds "mono o" to the counterfactual "mashi."

First line, "nishikigi no": "nishikigi" is the painted wood a man set up at a woman's gate in the courtship custom of Michinoku.
Second line, "chizuka ni kagiri": "the limit of a thousand bundles." Brocade-wood was said to be set up until it reached a thousand bundles.
Third line, "nakariseba": "seba" is a counterfactual condition answering "mashi" in the last line, "if there were none."
Fourth line, "nao korizuma ni": "korizuma ni" means "undaunted, without learning one's lesson."
Fifth line, "tatemashi mono o": "mashi" is the counterfactual auxiliary answering "seba" in the third line, and "mono o" is adversative lament, "I would go on setting them up."
Author: Kamo no Shigeyasu
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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