Tazuneyuku ōsakayama no kai mo naku ōmeku bakari wasurubeshi ya wa - Izumi Shikibu Nikki(English Translation & Meaning)

尋ゆく逢坂山のかひもなく
おほめくはかりわするへしやは

Roma-ji: Tazuneyuku ōsakayama no kai mo naku ōmeku bakari wasurubeshi ya wa
English Translation: Seeking you, I crossed
the pass of Ōsaka Mountain,
all to no avail—
should you forget so utterly
that you feign not to know me?
Meaning: Was it all in vain that I sought you across the pass of Ōsaka Mountain? Could you forget me so completely that you pretend not to know who I am?
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.
Izumi Shikibu's "Aumichi wa wasurenu meri to mishi hodo ni seki uchikoete tou hito wa tare" and "Yama nagara umi wa kogu tomo miyako e wa nani ka uchide no hama o mirubeki" arrived. Seeing "who is it that calls," the prince thought it a startling way of speaking and wrote this poem.
He went on, "And by the way," adding "Uki ni yori hitaya komori to omou tomo ōmi no umi wa uchiidete miyo," and sent the boy with it, saying, "I know it is hard, but go again."

The opening lines mean "of Ōsaka Mountain, which I sought you across," answering her "crossing the barrier," and "Ōsaka" echoes "to meet." In the third line, "kai" means both a mountain pass and "worth" or "avail."
The lower verses ask "should you forget so much as to feign ignorance?" where the verb means to pretend not to know, with a rhetorical ending. To her playful "who is it?" he answers with mock seriousness and feigned reproach, enjoying the exchange of wit between them.
Author: Prince Atsumichi
Source: Izumi Shikibu Nikki
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