Hito no ashi o tsumu nite shirinu waga kata e fumi okoseyo to omou narubeshi - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

人の足をつむにて知りぬわが方へ
ふみおこせよと思ふなるべし

Roma-ji: Hito no ashi o tsumu nite shirinu waga kata e fumi okoseyo to omou narubeshi
English Translation: Pinching someone's foot,
now I have understood it:
over here to me,
send a step, a letter,
is what she must be thinking
Meaning: Catching someone's foot between my fingers, I understood: she must be thinking, "Step my way, send me a letter."
Commentary: Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems III 1194

Headnote: "Composed when, serving as the officiant at a lecture meeting at Rokuharamitsuji, I pinched the foot of a lady in the audience as I mounted the lecture seat"
Serving as officiant at a lecture meeting at Rokuharamitsuji, the poet happened to pinch the foot of a lady who had come to listen as he climbed onto the high seat to preach, and so composed this poem. Pinching someone's foot, I understood: she must be thinking, send "fumi" my way, he says. Taking the touch of the lady's foot as a sign that she had stepped, "fumi," toward him, that is, that she wanted a love letter, "fumi," he plays the innocent despite being a monk, and therein lies the comedy of the humorous poem.
The author, "Ryōki Hōshi," was a monk of the late Heian period, but the details of his life are not known.
It is the fifteenth of the humorous poems.

First line, "hito no ashi o": a line of six syllables, one over the count.
Second line, "tsumu nite shirinu": "tsumu" means to pinch, "nite" expresses cause, "by," and "nu" is perfective. The poem pauses here.
Third line, "waga kata e": "toward me."
Fourth line, "fumi okoseyo to": "fumi" plays on stepping and on a letter, and "okoseyo" is the imperative "send it here." It shares "fumi" with "fumi miru tabi ni" in the fourth line of the next poem, 1195, and both play on stepping and letters in poems about letters between a monk and a woman.
Fifth line, "omou narubeshi": "naru" is the attributive of the copula "nari" and "beshi" a conjectural auxiliary, "she must be thinking."
Author: Ryōki
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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