Byōbu ni ya kokoro o tatete omoiken gyōja wa kaeri chigo wa tomarinu

屏風にや心を立てて思ひけん
行者は帰り稚児は泊まりぬ

Roma-ji: Byōbu ni ya kokoro o tatete omoiken gyōja wa kaeri chigo wa tomarinu
English Translation: Setting their hearts up
stiff as screens, did they fret so
at the Folding Screen?—
the ascetic has turned back,
and the acolyte has stayed.
Meaning: Did they brace their hearts, stiff as a folding screen, worrying over Byōbu-date? The ascetic has turned back, and the acolyte has stayed behind.
Commentary: Miscellaneous Poems 1117

Headnote: "Gyōja-gaeri and Chigo no Tomari are lodgings one after another. The mountain ascetics of spring are intent on passing safely the place called Byōbu-date, and so they must fret at the lodgings of Gyōja and Chigo"
The poem weaves in the names of two successive lodgings in Ōmine, Gyōja-gaeri, "The Ascetic Turns Back," and Chigo no Tomari, "The Acolyte Stays." Following the headnote's remark that spring ascetics, anxious to pass the dangerous Byōbu-date, "Standing Screen," must fret at those lodgings, Saigyō jests that bracing their hearts like a standing screen, the ascetic turned back and the acolyte stayed.
Gathering three place names, Byōbu-date, Gyōja-gaeri, and Chigo no Tomari, into the figures of people hesitating before a hard passage, the poem is full of humor, showing such playfulness even on a road of severe austerity.

First line, “byōbu ni ya”: at the place called Byōbu-date; ya questions, answered by the attributive ken in the third line.
Second line, “kokoro o tatete”: bracing the heart, overlaying "setting up" a screen with the name Byōbu-date.
Third line, “omoiken”: ken conjectures about the past, "did they fret?"; the poem breaks here.
Fourth line, “gyōja wa kaeri”: the ascetic turned back, weaving in the name Gyōja-gaeri.
Fifth line, “chigo wa tomarinu”: the acolyte stayed behind, weaving in Chigo no Tomari.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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