Ware hitori isogu to omoishi azumaji ni kakine no ume wa sakidachinikeri - Kinyo Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

我ひとり急ぐと思ひし東路に
垣根の梅はさきだちにけり

Roma-ji: Ware hitori isogu to omoishi azumaji ni kakine no ume wa sakidachinikeri
English Translation: I thought that I alone
was hurrying along
the road to the east,
but the plum by the hedge
had bloomed and gone ahead of me
Meaning: On the eastern road where I thought I alone was hurrying, the plum by the hedge had already bloomed and gone on ahead of me.
Commentary: Book Six Parting Poems 349

On the road to the east, where the poet thought he alone was hurrying on his journey, the plum by the hedge had bloomed before him and gone ahead. With sakidachi meaning both to burst into bloom and to go ahead, the poem holds the poet's surprise at how early the plum had bloomed along the road of his departure.
Some manuscripts name Tachibana no Norimitsu as the author and give the headnote 'Sent to the capital from the Ōsaka barrier when going down to Mutsu.' It would then be a poem sent from the Ōsaka barrier to someone in the capital on the way down to Mutsu, singing the feelings of the one who departs.
This is the closing poem of Book Six, Parting Poems. Where the opening poem, 334, reproached from the side of one left in the capital 'the heart that hurries' to the seedling-bed waters, this poem closes the book by singing of hurrying from the side of the one who departs, so that the beginning and end of the book answer each other.

First line, 'ware hitori', means I alone, showing that the poet thought he was the only one hurrying to set out.
Second line, 'isogu to omoishi', means I had thought I was hurrying, using the attributive of the past ki. It answers the final line 'isogu kokoro yo' of the opening poem, 334.
Third line, 'azumaji ni', means on the road to the eastern provinces.
Fourth line, 'kakine no ume wa', means the plum by the hedge, showing that the departure took place in spring. It shares the feeling of spring blossoms with 'the flowers of the flower capital' in the opening poem, 334.
Final line, 'sakidachinikeri', is a pivot word in which sakidachi means both sakitatsu, to burst into bloom, and sakidatsu, to go ahead, left in kana. The perfective nu is joined to the exclamatory keri.
Source: Kinyo Wakashu
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