Itodoshiku mukashi no ato ya taenan to omou mo kanashi kesa no shirayuki - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

いとどしく昔の跡や絶えなんと
思ふも悲し今朝の白雪

Roma-ji: Itodoshiku mukashi no ato ya taenan to omou mo kanashi kesa no shirayuki
English Translation: All the more, I fear,
the traces of days of old
may be lost for good;
how sad even to think it,
this morning's snow so white
Meaning: How sad it is to think that the traces of the holy ones of old may now vanish all the more, under this morning's white snow.
Commentary: Book Nineteen Buddhist Poems 1225

Headnote: "Sent to the monk Son'en on a morning when snow had fallen, when strife had arisen on Mount Hiei between the hall attendants and the scholar monks and the scholar monks had all scattered, and the Hōin Jien, nearing the completion of his thousand days' retreat on the mountain and grieving that the traces of the holy ones would be cut off, had stayed on quietly in a mountain cave until winter came"
When the hall attendants and the scholar monks of Mount Hiei fell into strife and the scholars all left the mountain, Jien, whose thousand days' retreat was nearing its end, grieved that the traces of the holy men of old would be cut off and stayed on quietly in a mountain cave. Winter came, and on a morning of fallen snow he sent this poem to the monk Son'en. How sad even to think that the traces of old may now vanish all the more, this morning's white snow, he says. In the snow piling on the deserted mountain and burying paths and footprints, he sees his fear that the Buddhist tradition of Mount Hiei may come to an end.
The author, "Hōin Jien," was a son of the Regent Fujiwara no Tadamichi and a younger brother of Kujō Kanezane. He later served four times as head of the Tendai school and wrote the historical work Gukanshō. His personal collection is the Shūgyokushū.
The next poem, 1226, is Son'en's reply, taking up this poem's "traces of old" and its snow. The fourth line in the kana reading line reads "omifu mo kanashi," which does not match "omofu mo kanashi" in the main text; here the main text is followed.

First line, "itodoshiku": "all the more, ever more."
Second line, "mukashi no ato ya": "mukashi no ato" are the traces of the holy men who practiced there before, the Buddhist tradition of Mount Hiei. "Ya," an interrogative binding particle, closes with the attributive "nan" in the third line. It is carried on into "mukashi no ato wa" in the fourth line of the next poem, 1226.
Third line, "taenan to": "nan," the irrealis of the perfective "nu" with the conjectural "mu," gives "might be lost for good."
Fourth line, "omou mo kanashi": "how sad even to think so," and the poem pauses here.
Fifth line, "kesa no shirayuki": the snow piling up and burying the traces, closing on a noun. It is carried on into "furu yuki ni" in the third line of the next poem, 1226.
Author: Jien
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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