Ashihiki no yama yori oku ni yado mogana toshi no kumajiki kakurega ni semu

足引の山より奥に宿もがな
年の来まじき隠れ家にせむ

Roma-ji: Ashihiki no yama yori oku ni yado mogana toshi no kumajiki kakurega ni semu
English Translation: Deeper than the hills
of the weary trailing foot
would I had a home,
a hiding place where the years
would never come to find me.
Meaning: If only I had a dwelling even deeper than the mountains—I would make it a hiding place where the years could never come.
Commentary: Winter Poems 396

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "An old man grieving over the year's end"
If only there were a dwelling even deeper than the mountains, the poet sings, he would make it a hiding place where the years could never come. Seeing the year as a visitor who comes calling, he voices with wit his wish to escape it and so avoid old age.

Line 1, ashihiki no, is a pillow word for "mountain."
Line 2 means "deeper than the mountains."
Line 3: mogana is a final particle of wishing, "would that I had a dwelling," and the poem pauses here.
Line 4: maji is the negative conjectural auxiliary, "where the years would surely not come."
Line 5 closes with the volitional mu, "I would make it my hiding place."
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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