From this day on,
the yesterday of the year to come—
must it be that I
long only for that time,
and wait for it unceasing?

Meaning

From today on, must I go on longing only for the ‘yesterday’ of the coming year, waiting for it without end?

Commentary

Book Four Autumn Poems (Part One)

This poem was composed on the eighth day of the seventh month.

It expresses the feeling of Orihime and Hikoboshi after parting at dawn on the night of Tanabata, longing for their next meeting as soon as possible.

The series of Tanabata poems in the Kokinshū moves from longing for the seventh day of the seventh month to waiting for that same day in the following year, and concludes with this poem of anticipation.

Author

Mibu no Tadamine

Source

Kokin Wakashu

Other

The one who comes tonight— I will not meet with him; like Tanabata, I might be left to wait so long through such enduring time.
Now it must be so— as we part from one another, at Heaven’s River, before I even cross it, my sleeves are already wet.
Through these trees, the moonlight filters softly down— seeing its glow, the autumn that stirs the heart has come upon us at last.
As autumn comes on through all the world around me— then it is that I come to know within myself how sorrowful I truly am.

From this day on, the yesterday of the year to come— must it be that I long only for that time, and wait for it unceasing?

From this day on,
the yesterday of the year to come—
must it be that I
long only for that time,
and wait for it unceasing?