Ato taete toubeki hito mo omooezu tare ka wa kesa no yuki o wakekon - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

跡絶えて訪ふべき人もおもほえず
たれかは今朝の雪を分け来ん

Roma-ji: Ato taete toubeki hito mo omooezu tare ka wa kesa no yuki o wakekon
English Translation: With all tracks vanished,
no one comes to mind at all
who might come calling;
who then, I wonder, this morning
would part the snow to come here?
Meaning: All tracks have vanished, and I can think of no one who might come to call. Who would part the snow to come here this morning?
Commentary: Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems III 1170

Headnote: "Sutarekawa"
This is a hidden-name poem, concealing the word "sutarekawa" across "omooezu" in the third line and "tare ka wa" in the fourth. All tracks have vanished and no one comes to mind who might call; who would part the snow to come this morning? he says. It is a poem that savors the loneliness of a dwelling shut in by snow, where no one comes.
The author, "Middle Counselor Sadayori," is Fujiwara no Sadayori. A son of the Major Counselor Fujiwara no Kintō, he rose to provisional middle counselor and is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets of the middle ages.
It is the second poem of the hidden-name series.

First line, "ato taete": "all tracks having vanished," depicting a place buried in snow where no one comes or goes.
Second line, "toubeki hito mo": "tou" means to visit, and "beki," the attributive of the conjectural "beshi," gives "anyone who might come to call."
Third line, "omooezu": "does not come to mind," and the poem pauses here. From the final "zu" into the next line lies hidden the word "sutarekawa."
Fourth line, "tare ka wa kesa no": "ka wa" is a rhetorical binding particle closing with "n" in the fifth line, "who would come? No one at all."
Fifth line, "yuki o wakekon": "would part the snow and come," with "n," the attributive of the conjectural "mu," closing the binding.
Author: Fujiwara no Sadayori
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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