Inishie o shinobu to nashi ni Isonokami furinishi sato ni ware wa kinikeri

いにしへを偲ぶとなしに石上
ふりにし里に我は来にけり

Roma-ji: Inishie o shinobu to nashi ni Isonokami furinishi sato ni ware wa kinikeri
English Translation: Not that I meant
to come yearning for the past,
yet to Isonokami,
to the village grown so old,
I find that I have come.
Meaning: Not intending to long for the past, I find I have come to the old village of Isonokami.
Commentary: Miscellaneous Poems 700

Headnote: "On the heart of the old village"
On the theme of the old village, the poet says he did not come meaning to long for the past, yet finds himself in the old village of Furu at Isonokami, where its loneliness naturally calls the past to mind.
The Jōkyō text differs in line 2, which is read shinobu to nashi ni after the Ruijū text. One letter of line 3 is hard to read in the source as displayed and is here read isonokami.

Line 1 means "the past."
Line 2 means "without meaning to yearn."
Line 3, isonokami, is a pillow word for "old" and the place name Isonokami; like the opening of 643 of this book, it sings of the old capital there.
Line 4 means "to the village grown old," furi meaning both "aged" and the place name Furu at Isonokami.
Line 5 means "I have come," keri expressing realization.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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