Aumichi wa wasurenu meri to mishi hodo ni seki uchikoete tou hito wa tare - Izumi Shikibu Nikki(English Translation & Meaning)

あふみちはわすれぬめりとみし程に
關打越てとふ人はたれ

Roma-ji: Aumichi wa wasurenu meri to mishi hodo ni seki uchikoete tou hito wa tare
English Translation: The road to meeting,
the Ōmi road, you had forgotten,
or so it seemed to me—
who is it, then, that crosses
the barrier to call on me?
Meaning: I thought you had quite forgotten the road to meeting, the road to Ōmi; who, then, is this who crosses the barrier to ask after me?
Commentary: 21 The Pilgrimage to Ishiyama

When the eighth month came, Izumi Shikibu set out for Ishiyama Temple to ease her idleness, meaning to stay about seven days. Thinking that he had not written for a long time, the prince was about to send a letter when the page boy told him, "I went the other day, but they say she is at Ishiyama Temple these days." "Then today is already over," said the prince. "Go tomorrow morning." The boy came to Ishiyama with the prince's letter. Even before the Buddha, Izumi Shikibu's heart was elsewhere; she longed only for the capital and was saddened to think that such a pilgrimage was a sign of how much her life had changed, and she prayed earnestly to the Buddha. Just then she sensed someone below the railing, and looking down in surprise, she saw the page boy. Moved that he had come to so unexpected a place, she had someone ask why, and he held out a letter. She opened it more eagerly than usual.
The woman is Izumi Shikibu, daughter of Ōe no Masamune and, as the wife of Tachibana no Michisada, Governor of Izumi, mother of Koshikibu no Naishi. The Prince of the Dazaifu is Prince Atsumichi, fourth son of Emperor Reizei, so called because he served as Governor-General of the Dazaifu. Ishiyama Temple is a sacred site of Kannon in the province of Ōmi, in present-day Ōtsu, Shiga, reached from the capital by crossing the Ōsaka Barrier.
The prince's letter reproached her for withdrawing to the mountain without a word and contained "Seki koete kyō zo tou to ya hito wa shiru omoi taesenu kokorozukai o." Touched that he had sought her out so deliberately, when even nearby his letters came so rarely, Izumi Shikibu sent back this poem.
Answering his question about when she would leave the mountain, she added "Yama nagara umi wa kogu tomo miyako e wa nani ka uchide no hama o mirubeki." The prince would react to her phrase "who is it that calls" as a startling way of speaking.

In the first line, "aumichi" means both "the road to meeting" and "the Ōmi road" leading to Ishiyama. The second and third lines mean "just when I thought you seemed to have forgotten," with a perfective auxiliary and an auxiliary of inference based on appearances.
The lower verses ask "who is it that crosses the barrier to call?" taking up his "crossing the barrier" and "call" exactly. Knowing full well that it is the prince, she feigns not to know, a witty reply that carries both resentment at his usual neglect and delight at his letter.
Author: Izumi Shikibu
Source: Izumi Shikibu Nikki
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