Kagirinaku kanashikarikeri Toribeyama naki o okurite kaeru kokoro wa

限りなく悲しかりけり鳥辺山
亡きを送りて帰る心は

Roma-ji: Kagirinaku kanashikarikeri Toribeyama naki o okurite kaeru kokoro wa
English Translation: Sad beyond measure,
that is how it was for me,
at Toribeyama,
having seen the dead one off,
my heart on the way back home.
Meaning: Sad beyond all measure, that is how it was: the heart returning home from Toribeyama, after seeing the dead one off.
Commentary: Miscellaneous Poems 790

Headnote: "Someone close to me had died, and returning after going to Toribeyama for the funeral rites"
Someone connected to the poet had died, and he composed this returning home from Toribeyama after the funeral. The heart that comes home from seeing off the dead is sad beyond all measure, he says, stating plainly the emptiness and grief after the farewell.

First line, “kagirinaku”: beyond all measure.
Second line, “kanashikarikeri”: keri is exclamatory, how sad it was; the poem breaks here.
Third line, “Toribeyama”: the burial ground in the Eastern Hills, the same place as Toribeno in 757 and 776.
Fourth line, “naki o okurite”: having seen the dead one off.
Fifth line, “kaeru kokoro wa”: the heart going home, inverted to follow the second line.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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