都出でて逢坂越えし折までは
心かすめし白河の関
心かすめし白河の関
- Roma-ji
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Miyako idete ōsaka koeshi ori made wa kokoro kasumeshi shirakawa no seki
- English Translation
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Leaving the capital,
until the time I crossed
the barrier of Ōsaka,
just a haze within my heart—
the barrier of Shirakawa.
- Meaning
- When I left the capital and crossed the Ōsaka barrier, the Shirakawa barrier was no more than a hazy thought in my heart.
- Commentary
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Miscellaneous Poems 1127
Headnote: "Entering beyond the barrier, the area called Shinobu felt like another world and was moving. I kept thinking of the days since leaving the capital, and in my heart alone I felt deeply how I had come tracing the path of the poem 'together with the haze,' and composed this"
Passing the Shirakawa barrier into the area of Shinobu, Saigyō felt as though he were in another world. Thinking of the days since leaving the capital, he felt keenly how he had come following the path of Nōin's poem "together with the haze." When he left the capital and crossed the Ōsaka barrier, the Shirakawa barrier was only a hazy image in his heart.
Like the preceding poem it draws on Nōin's poem of the Shirakawa barrier, echoing its "haze" in kokoro kasumeshi. Contrasting two barriers, Ōsaka at the threshold of the capital and Shirakawa at the threshold of Michinoku, the poem makes one feel the long distance traveled.
First line, “miyako idete”: setting out from the capital; the line has an extra syllable.
Second line, “ōsaka koeshi”: having crossed the Ōsaka barrier in Ōmi, the first barrier beyond the capital.
Third line, “ori made wa”: up to that time.
Fourth line, “kokoro kasumeshi”: faintly floating in my heart, echoing the "haze" of Nōin's poem.
Fifth line, “shirakawa no seki”: ending on a noun, the barrier of Michinoku, reached at last, lingers.
- Author
- Saigyō
- Source
- Sankashu
- Prev Poem
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Shirakawa no sekiya o tsuki no moru kage wa hito no kokoro o tomuru narikeri
- Next Poem
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Karenikeru matsu naki ato no takekuma wa miki to iite mo kai nakaru beshi