大正十五年四月、解くすべもない惑ひを背負うて、行乞流転の旅に出た。In the fourth month of 1926, shouldering a bewilderment I had no way to undo, I set out on the road of mendicant wandering.
分け入つても分け入つても青い山going in deeper / and deeper still / the green mountains
わけいっても わけいっても あおいやまwakeittemo wakeittemo aoi yama
大正15年(1926) 行乞流転の旅の出発期1926 · Setting out on the wandering road
『草木塔』鉢の子Sōmokutō · The Begging Bowl (Hachi no ko)
旅立ちの句。歩いても歩いても、越えたと思えばまた青い山が現れる。目的地のない放浪の始まりを、絶望でも希望でもなく、ただそのまま差し出している。四十四歳、すべてを捨てて笠ひとつで歩き出した山頭火の、いちばん有名な一句。The poem of his departure. However far he walks, no sooner has he crossed one ridge than another green mountain rises. He offers the start of an aimless wandering not as despair, not as hope, but simply as it is. Forty-four years old, having cast everything away and walked out with only a straw hat — Santōka's most famous poem.