雪降れば野路も山路も埋もれて
をちこち知らぬ旅の空かな
をちこち知らぬ旅の空かな
- Roma-ji
-
Yuki fureba noji mo yamaji mo uzumorete ochikochi shiranu tabi no sora kana
- English Translation
-
When the snow comes down
both the field paths and the mountain paths
are buried out of sight,
and I know not far from near
beneath the sky of my journey.
- Meaning
- When the snow falls, the paths through the fields and through the mountains are all buried, and under the sky of my journey I can no longer tell what is far and what is near.
- Commentary
-
Winter Poems 539
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "When composing poems on snow"
This is the second of six poems on snow. When snow falls, the paths of field and mountain alike are buried, and the traveler can no longer tell what is far and what is near, left helpless on the road. The poem catches the forlornness of a journey when snow has wiped away every clue to direction and distance.
Where 530 in this book told of being shut in for winter when snow buried even the twigs marking the way, this one tells of losing the way on a journey, treating the same theme of snow burying the path from the stand of one shut in and one traveling.
First line, “yuki fureba”: ba marks an established condition, when the snow falls.
Second line, “noji mo yamaji mo”: noji is a path through the fields and yamaji a path through the mountains, set side by side.
Third line, “uzumorete”: buried and hidden.
Fourth line, “ochikochi shiranu”: ochikochi is far and near, unable to tell them apart.
Fifth line, “tabi no sora kana”: tabi no sora is the state of being on a journey, and kana is exclamatory.
- Author
- Saigyō
- Source
- Sankashu
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Nani to naku kururu shizuri no oto made mo yuki aware naru Fukakusa no sato
- Next Poem
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Aone yama koke no mushiro no ue ni shiku yuki wa Shirane no kokochi koso sure