Shigaraki no soma no ōji wa todomete yo hatsuyuki furinu muko no yamabito

信楽の杣の大路はとどめてよ
初雪降りぬむこの山人

Roma-ji: Shigaraki no soma no ōji wa todomete yo hatsuyuki furinu muko no yamabito
English Translation: On Shigaraki's
logging road, the great highway,
stop all passing feet!
The first snow has fallen now,
you mountain folk over there.
Meaning: Hold back all traffic on the great road of the Shigaraki timberlands; the first snow has fallen, you mountain folk over the way.
Commentary: One Hundred Poems 1483

Headnote: "Ten Poems on Snow"
The first of the ten poems on snow. Since the first snow has fallen, he calls on the mountain folk across the way to stop traffic on the great road of the Shigaraki timberlands, so that the snow is not trampled.
Shigaraki, in Ōmi, was known for its timber mountains. The wish to spare the newly fallen snow from footsteps echoes 1459 among the blossom poems, which would leave no footprints in the snow of blossoms. Muko no yamabito is taken as the woodcutters on the mountain across the way.

First line, “Shigaraki no”: a place in Ōmi known for its timber mountains.
Second line, “soma no ōji wa”: the great road of the timberlands.
Third line, “todomete yo”: stop the traffic, the imperative breaking the poem here.
Fourth line, “hatsuyuki furinu”: nu marks completion, "the first snow has fallen"; the poem breaks again here.
Fifth line, “muko no yamabito”: taken as "you mountain folk across the way," an address.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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