Nushi shire to hikikeru koma no yuki o wakeba kashikoki ato ni kaere to zo omou

主知れと引きける駒の雪を分けば
賢き跡に帰れとぞ思ふ

Roma-ji: Nushi shire to hikikeru koma no yuki o wakeba kashikoki ato ni kaere to zo omou
English Translation: If the steed you led
to me, bidding it know its master,
parts the snow to go,
let it follow the wise old tale
and make its way back home.
Meaning: If the horse you led to me, bidding it know its master, makes its way through the snow, I would have it follow the wise old precedent and return.
Commentary: Winter Poems 386

Headnote: "Reply"
This is the poet's reply to a poem attached to a horse presented by Nikaidō Yukimitsu. According to the headnote placed before it, on a snowy day in the twelfth month of Kenryaku 2 (1212), the poet visited the house of Minbu-no-taifu Yukimitsu to view a mountain-dwelling landscape; Yamashiro-no-hōgan Yukimura and many others gathered, there was poetry and music, and he returned late at night. Yukimitsu presented him with a black horse, and when he looked at it the next day, a paper was tied to its mane. On it was Yukimitsu's poem, "Parting this snow, my heart is with you, my lord, so I lead this horse after the precedent of the steed that knows its master," meaning that because his heart went with his lord returning through the snow, he offered the horse in the spirit of the old tale of a horse that knows its master.
The poet answered, singing that if the horse led to him with the charge to know its master makes its way through the snow, it should follow the wise old precedent and go back. He takes up "the steed that knows its master" and "parting the snow" from Yukimitsu's poem and makes them the words of his reply. After the poem comes a note that the poet wrote it out himself, chose someone versed in poetry, and sent it by the messenger Naitō no Uma-no-jō Tomochika.
The Ruijū text places both Yukimitsu's poem and this one among the "poems found in other manuscripts and printed editions" and lacks the closing note. According to the source's note, the original manuscript has "no poem" after this, which is judged an error. Yukimitsu's poem bears no number and is by someone other than the poet, so it is recorded here only as part of the background to this poem.

Line 1 means "bidding it know its master," taking up "the steed that knows its master" in Yukimitsu's poem.
Line 2 means "the horse that you led and gave me."
Line 3 is hypermetric, "if it parts the snow," taking up "parting this snow" at the start of Yukimitsu's poem.
Line 4 refers to the precedent left by the wise horse of the old tale, the horse that knows its master.
Line 5 concludes the binding particle zo with the attributive omou, declaring "I would have it go back."
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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