Tamazusa no tsuzuki wa miede karigane no koe koso kiri ni ketarezarikere

玉章の続きは見えで雁がねの
声こそ霧に消たれざりけれ

Roma-ji: Tamazusa no tsuzuki wa miede karigane no koe koso kiri ni ketarezarikere
English Translation: Though the letter's lines
cannot be seen through the mist,
yet the wild geese's
voices, they at least have not
been effaced by the mist.
Meaning: The line of the geese, like the strokes of a letter, cannot be seen through the mist; only their cries have not been blotted out by it.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 423

Headnote: "Wild geese in the mist"
The topic is wild geese in the mist. The line of geese flying like the strokes of a letter is hidden by mist and cannot be seen, yet their cries come through, not blotted out by the mist. Using the figure of a letter, the poem tells how the voice reaches us even when the form is hidden.
It takes up the device of 421, which likens the line of geese to a letter. In 421 the geese are hidden by darkness and here by mist, and in both only their voices reach the poet.

First line, “tamazusa no”: of the letter, the line of geese likened to writing.
Second line, “tsuzuki wa miede”: de is a negative conjunctive particle, the continuing strokes, the line of geese, unseen.
Third line, “karigane no”: karigane means wild geese or their cry.
Fourth line, “koe koso kiri ni”: the voices alone, by the mist, with koso forming a kakari-musubi with the perfective kere in the last line.
Fifth line, “ketarezarikere”: ketsu is to erase, not blotted out by the mist; the perfective form answers koso.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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