Tsune yori mo kokorobosoku zo omōyuru tabi no sora nite toshi no kurenuru

常よりも心細くぞ思ほゆる
旅の空にて年の暮れぬる

Roma-ji: Tsune yori mo kokorobosoku zo omōyuru tabi no sora nite toshi no kurenuru
English Translation: More than other years,
I feel so forlorn and lonely
in my heart tonight:
under the skies of my journey
the year has drawn to its close.
Meaning: I feel more forlorn than in other years, for the year has come to its end while I am far away on my journey.
Commentary: Winter Poems 572

Headnote: "Composed at the end of the year in Michinoku"
The headnote tells us this was composed at the end of the year in Michinoku, and it is thought to date from the poet's first journey there in his youth. Meeting the end of the year not in a familiar place but far away on the road, he feels more forlorn than in other years. The poem expresses plainly the loneliness of a year's end met on a journey.
Poem 539 in this book also spoke of tabi no sora, the forlornness of losing the way in snow on a journey. The last line of this poem, toshi no kurenuru, is the same as that of 576 and echoes toshi wa kurenuru in 575, so poems on the end of the year follow one another.

First line, “tsune yori mo”: more than usual, compared with the year's end in other years.
Second line, “kokorobosoku zo”: zo is an emphatic particle binding with the attributive omōyuru in the third line.
Third line, “omōyuru”: omōyu is to come to mind of itself; it closes in the attributive required by zo, and the poem breaks after the third line.
Fourth line, “tabi no sora nite”: tabi no sora is the state of being on a journey.
Fifth line, “toshi no kurenuru”: nuru is the attributive of the perfective, since the year has ended, giving the reason for his forlornness; this stands in inversion to the first three lines.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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