Karibito wa togame mo ya sen kusa shigemi ayashiki tori no ato no midare o - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

狩人は咎めもやせん草しげみ
あやしき鳥の跡の乱れを

Roma-ji: Karibito wa togame mo ya sen kusa shigemi ayashiki tori no ato no midare o
English Translation: Will not the hunter
find it suspicious, I fear?
In the grass so thick,
the tracks of some strange bird
lying tangled all about
Meaning: Will the hunter not find it suspicious, I wonder: these strange bird tracks, all in a tangle in the thick grass?
Commentary: Book Fifteen Love Poems V 911

Headnote: "Sent in reply when a man she had once known, hearing that she was seeing another, sent her a letter"
This is understood as a poem she sent in reply when a man she had once been involved with, hearing that she was close to someone else, sent her a letter. Will the hunter not find fault, she says, since the grass is thick, with the tangled tracks of some strange bird? Bird tracks are a figure for writing and handwriting; likening his letter to "the tracks of a strange bird" and her present lover to "the hunter," she gently rebuffs his lingering attachment by fretting that the letter might be noticed by her new man. Writing is called bird tracks from the Chinese story that Cangjie invented the characters after seeing the footprints of birds.
The author, "Sagami," was the daughter, or by some accounts the adopted daughter, of Minamoto no Yorimitsu. She took the name from her marriage to Ōe no Kinsuke, Governor of Sagami, and later served Princess Shūshi, daughter of Emperor Ichijō. A poem of hers is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
Poem 950 of this book, "hamachidori ato dani misenu," likewise uses bird tracks as a figure for a letter.

First line, "karibito wa": "karibito" is one who hunts birds and beasts, here a figure for her present lover. It is a related word to "tori," "bird," in the fourth line.
Second line, "togame mo ya sen": "togamu" means to notice and find fault. The interrogative binding particle "ya" closes with "n," the attributive of the conjectural "mu," "will he not find fault?" The poem pauses here and stands in inverted order with the lines that follow.
Third line, "kusa shigemi": the stem of the adjective "shigeshi" with "mi" expresses cause, "because the grass is thick." It shows the place where the tangled tracks remain.
Fourth line, "ayashiki tori no": "ayashiki" means strange or suspicious. "Tori," "bird," leads on to "ato" in the last line to suggest writing, a figure for his letter.
Fifth line, "ato no midare o": "ato" is a footprint, and "tori no ato" means handwriting or writing. "Midare," "tangle," overlays the jumbled tracks with disordered handwriting and his disordered heart. It shares the image with "ato dani misenu" in the fourth line of 950 of this book.
Author: Sagami
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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