Nakoso to iu koto o ba kimi ga kotogusa o seki no na zo to mo omoikeru kana - Kinyo Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

なこそといふことをば君が言種を
関の名ぞとも思ひけるかな

Roma-ji: Nakoso to iu koto o ba kimi ga kotogusa o seki no na zo to mo omoikeru kana
English Translation: Don't come, the words that
you would always say to me,
those words of habit,
I took them for the name of
the barrier at Nakoso
Meaning: I had thought that nakoso, don't come, was just the name of the barrier, though it was the phrase you were always saying.
Commentary: Book Eleven Variant Poems 698

Nakoso, don't come, was the beloved's habitual phrase, yet the poet had taken it to be merely the name of the Nakoso Barrier. Joking that he had mistaken the beloved's constant refusal for a place name, the poet expresses his resentment.
This poem is found only in a variant manuscript line of the anthology; in the variant order it is placed after 476 in Book Eight. Love poems resenting a cold beloved stand around it.
The author, Toshiyori, is Minamoto no Toshiyori, a son of the Major Counselor Minamoto no Tsunenobu, who became Head of the Carpentry Office. He was the compiler of this anthology, and his personal collection is the Sanboku Kika Shū. One of his poems appears in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.

First line, 'nakoso to iu', means saying na koso, a prohibition meaning do not come; the line has an extra syllable.
Second line, 'koto o ba kimi ga', means the words that you, using ba, the voiced form of the particle wa.
Third line, 'kotogusa o', means your habitual phrase.
Fourth line, 'seki no na zo to mo', means as the name of the barrier, pointing to the Nakoso Barrier in Mutsu, a famous place.
Final line, 'omoikeru kana', means so I had thought, the attributive of the exclamatory keri with kana.
Author: Minamoto no Toshiyori
Source: Kinyo Wakashu
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