Tou hito wa hatsuyuki o koso wakekoshika michi tojitekeri miyamabe no sato

訪ふ人は初雪をこそ分け来しか
道閉ぢてけり深山辺の里

Roma-ji: Tou hito wa hatsuyuki o koso wakekoshika michi tojitekeri miyamabe no sato
English Translation: Those who came to call
through the first snow of the year
made their way to me,
but now the path is closed for good,
this village by the deep hills.
Meaning: Those who visit me made their way through the snow when it first fell, but now the path is closed: this village at the edge of the deep mountains.
Commentary: Winter Poems 569

Headnote: "Winter deepening at a mountain dwelling"
The topic is winter deepening at a mountain dwelling. When the first snow fell, visitors still made their way through it, but now that winter has deepened the path is closed by snow, and no one comes any more to this village at the edge of the deep mountains. The poem catches the deepening of winter as visits cease.
It ends with the same line as the preceding poem, miyamabe no sato; where that poem accepted the snow as a companion, this one tells of the snow cutting off visitors, viewing the snow of the same village with a different heart.

First line, “tou hito wa”: tou is to visit, those who come to call.
Second line, “hatsuyuki o koso”: koso is an emphatic particle binding with the perfective shika in the third line, at the first snow above all.
Third line, “wakekoshika”: shika is the perfective of the past auxiliary ki, answering koso, and leads on concessively, they made their way, but.
Fourth line, “michi tojitekeri”: toju is to be closed, and tekeri is perfective and exclamatory, the path has been closed; the poem breaks after the fourth line.
Fifth line, “miyamabe no sato”: the poem ends on a noun, the same last line as the preceding poem, answering the dwelling of the topic.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
Prev Poem: Furiuzumu yuki o tomo nite haru kite wa hi o okuru beki miyamabe no sato
Next Poem: Toshi no uchi wa tou hito sara ni araji kashi yuki mo yamaji mo fukaki sumika o