Ato taete yo o nogarubeki michi nare ya iwa sae koke no koromo kitekeri - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

跡絶えて世をのがるべき道なれや
岩さへ苔の衣着てけり

Roma-ji: Ato taete yo o nogarubeki michi nare ya iwa sae koke no koromo kitekeri
English Translation: Where footprints vanish,
is this the very road
for fleeing the world?
Even the rocks along the way
have put on robes of moss
Meaning: Is this a road meant for leaving the world behind, where all footprints fade away? Even the rocks have put on robes of moss.
Commentary: Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems II 1107

Headnote: "Composed on the mountain road when I went on a pilgrimage to Kōya"
This poem was composed on the mountain road when he went on a pilgrimage to Mount Kōya. Is this the road for fleeing the world, where footprints vanish; even the rocks wear robes of moss, he says. "Robes of moss" means the humble robes of monks and recluses. On the lonely mountain road to Kōya, seeing rocks covered in moss, he imagines that even the rocks have taken the tonsure and put on monk's robes, singing of a scene fitting the road to a holy place of retreat.
The author, "the Prince of Ninnaji (Shukaku)," is Prince-Priest Shukaku. The second son of Emperor Go-Shirakawa, he entered Ninnaji and became its head. He loved waka and associated with many poets.
It shares moss with "kokemushiro" in the third line of 1109 of this book, both singing of moss in a place of practice.

First line, "ato taete": "where the traces of coming and going have ceased."
Second line, "yo o nogarubeki": "by which one should flee the world."
Third line, "michi nare ya": "nare" is the realis of the copula "nari," and with "ya" it gives a reason mixed with doubt, "is it because it is such a road?" The poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "iwa sae koke no": "sae" is an additive particle, "even the rocks." It shares moss with "kokemushiro" in the third line of 1109 of this book.
Fifth line, "koromo kitekeri": "have put on robes," with "robes of moss" meaning monk's robes, likening the rocks to people who have left the world.
Author: Cloistered Prince Shukaku
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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