Morotomo ni tatamashi mono o michinoku no koromo no seki o yoso ni kiku kana - Shika Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

もろともにたたましものを陸奥の
衣の関をよそに聞くかな

Roma-ji: Morotomo ni tatamashi mono o michinoku no koromo no seki o yoso ni kiku kana
English Translation: Together with you
I would have set out, and yet
now of Michinoku's
Barrier of Koromo
I only hear from afar.
Meaning: I should have set out on that journey together with you, yet now I only hear of the Barrier of Koromo in Michinoku as something that has nothing to do with me.
Commentary: Book Six Parting Poems 173

Headnote: "Sent when Michisada, having forgotten her, went down to take up his post as governor of Mutsu."
A poem sent on hearing that the husband who had left her was going down to his province as governor of Mutsu. The loneliness of having to hear, as an outsider, of a road she once would have traveled with him is entrusted to Koromo Barrier, a famous place in Michinoku.
Michisada is Tachibana no Michisada, Izumi Shikibu's husband. Sent after their bond had ended, as he left for Mutsu, the poem conveys lingering attachment and loneliness in a restrained tone without open reproach, and therein lies its charm.

First line, "morotomo ni" (together), recalls a relationship in which husband and wife should have traveled side by side.
Second line, "tatamashi mono o": "tata" is a pivot word meaning both to set out on a journey and to cut cloth, linked by association with "koromo" (robe) in the fourth line. The counterfactual "mashi" and the concessive "mono o" voice the lament "if only I could have set out."
Third line, "michinoku no," names Michisada's province. In this book the headnote to 175 also tells of a governor going down to Mutsu, so partings from those bound for Michinoku are set one upon another.
Fourth line, "koromo no seki o": Koromo Barrier is a poetic place in Mutsu. "Koromo" (robe) answers "cutting cloth" in the second line, and the barrier itself symbolizes the distance between the two.
Final line, "yoso ni kiku kana": "yoso ni" means as something unrelated to oneself, and the exclamatory "kana" closes with a sigh at being one who merely hears rumors from far away.
Author: Izumi Shikibu
Source: Shika Wakashu
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