Yatsuhashi no watari ni kyō mo tomaru kana koko ni sumubeki mi ka wa to omoedo - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

八橋のわたりに今日も泊まるかな
ここに住むべき身かはと思へど

Roma-ji: Yatsuhashi no watari ni kyō mo tomaru kana koko ni sumubeki mi ka wa to omoedo
English Translation: At Yatsuhashi,
crossing near its eight bridges,
here again I stay;
am I one who ought to live here?
Not so, I think, and yet
Meaning: Here again today I stop for the night near Yatsuhashi, though I hardly think I am one meant to settle here.
Commentary: Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems III 1197

Headnote: "Composed at Yatsuhashi when traveling to the eastern provinces"
He composed this at Yatsuhashi while traveling down to the eastern provinces. Near Yatsuhashi I stop again today, though I think I am not one who ought to live here, he says. Yatsuhashi is famous as the place where, in the eastern journey of the Tales of Ise, a man composed a poem working in the name of the iris and longed for his wife in the capital. This poem wryly mocks himself, held up again and staying the night in that place though he has no intention of living there.
The author, "Dōin Hōshi," was a son of Fujiwara no Kiyotaka. His lay name was Atsuyori, and he is known for devoting himself to poetry with great zeal even into old age.
It is the eighteenth of the humorous poems.

First line, "Yatsuhashi no": Yatsuhashi is a place in Mikawa known from the eastern journey episode of the Tales of Ise.
Second line, "watari ni kyō mo": "watari" means the vicinity and plays on "watari," crossing a bridge.
Third line, "tomaru kana": "kana" is an exclamatory final particle, and the poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "koko ni sumubeki": "beki" is the attributive of "beshi" expressing what is expected, "who ought to live here."
Fifth line, "mi ka wa to omoedo": "ka wa" is a rhetorical binding particle, "am I one who should live here? Not at all." "Do" is adversative, and by inversion the line returns to the third.
Author: Dōin
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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