Koritsumuru nageki o ika ni seyo tote ka kimi ni ōko no hitosuji mo nashi - Kinyo Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

こりつむるなげきをいかにせよとてか
君にあふこのひとすぢもなし

Roma-ji: Koritsumuru nageki o ika ni seyo tote ka kimi ni ōko no hitosuji mo nashi
English Translation: These woes I gather,
firewood of grief piled high,
what would you have me do?
Of a pole to bear them, a chance
to meet you, I have not one
Meaning: What would you have me do with this grief, piled up like firewood I have cut? There is not a single carrying pole, not a single chance to meet you.
Commentary: Book Eight Love Poems II 494

What, the poet asks, is to be done with grief piled up like firewood cut and stacked? As there is not a single pole to carry it, there is not a single chance to meet the beloved. Stringing together pivot words tied to carrying firewood, cutting, firewood, carrying pole and a single length, the poem wittily expresses the grief of a love that cannot meet.
Poems 498 and 499 in this book also use nageki and koru as pivot words, forming a sequence that sings of love's grief in the language of firewood.

First line, 'koritsumuru', is a pivot word in which kori means both cutting wood and being sick of love, left in kana. It means gathering and piling up.
Second line, 'nageki o ika ni', is a pivot word in which nageki means both grief and wood cut for fuel, left in kana.
Third line, 'seyo tote ka', means would you have me do, the particle ka expressing a question.
Fourth line, 'kimi ni ōko no', is a pivot word in which ōko means both a time to meet you and a carrying pole, left in kana. Ōko naki in the first line of poem 498 in this book uses the same pivot word.
Final line, 'hitosuji mo nashi', means not a single one, hitosuji layering one carrying pole and one means.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Kinyo Wakashu
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