Shiori seshi nao yama fukaku wakeiran uki koto kikanu tokoro ari ya to

しをりせしなほ山深く分け入らん
憂き事聞かぬ所ありやと

Roma-ji: Shiori seshi nao yama fukaku wakeiran uki koto kikanu tokoro ari ya to
English Translation: Beyond where I've marked
the trail by breaking branches,
deeper I will go—
is there not some place, I wonder,
where no sad tidings reach me?
Meaning: I will go deeper still into the mountains beyond where I have marked my path with broken branches, to see if there is any place where I will not hear of sorrows.
Commentary: Miscellaneous Poems 1121

Headnote: "Sent from Kōya to someone who was rumored to have resolved upon something unexpected"
Saigyō sent this from Mount Kōya to someone rumored to have made an unexpected resolve. He will go deeper still into the mountains, beyond where he has marked his way with broken branches, to see if there is a place where he will not hear of sorrows.
The "unexpected" resolve seems to be a decision to take vows or withdraw from the world; to that person Saigyō conveys that even in the mountains he cannot escape the world's rumors and so heads further in. Sympathy for the other's resolve is laid over the sorrows of the world that remain even after renunciation.

First line, “shiori seshi”: shiori is breaking branches to mark a mountain trail; shi is the attributive of the past ki.
Second line, “nao yama fukaku”: deeper into the mountains still.
Third line, “wakeiran”: n is volitional, "I will push in"; the poem breaks here.
Fourth line, “uki koto kikanu”: where one hears no sorrows.
Fifth line, “tokoro ari ya to”: ya questions, "whether there is such a place," the inversion giving the purpose at the end.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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