Wakarubeki koto mo aru mono o hinemosu ni matsu tote sae mo nagekitsuru kana

English Translation

There is the parting
itself to be grieved over
and now, on top of
that, a whole day spent waiting
is one more thing to grieve for

Meaning

There is the parting itself to grieve over — and now a whole day spent waiting for it turns out to be one more thing to grieve for.

Commentary

73 Even the Waiting

The Middle Counsellor of Tsutsumi had prepared a farewell party for a man going down to a province as governor, and waited; but the man did not come, and when the day had grown late he sent him this poem. On receiving it the man came in a great hurry. The section closes on that sentence.
The Middle Counsellor of Tsutsumi is Fujiwara no Kanesuke, one of the thirty-six poetic immortals, who composes the elegy for the Prince of the Ministry of Ceremonial in the seventy-first section. Of the man appointed governor the prose tells us nothing.
The setting is Kanesuke's residence, where the farewell had been made ready and the guest had not arrived by nightfall.
What prompted the poem was that wait. It was sent to the man who had not come.
He came in haste on receiving it. The section ends with a poem having moved a man.

The opening grants that there is already the parting to grieve over, its concessive particle carrying regret: that alone would be enough.
The third line means all day long, from morning to night — the length of the wait.
The particle in the fourth line means even, and adds the grief of waiting on top of the grief of parting. The sorrow is doubled.
The closing is an exclamation. A man kept waiting for a farewell party makes the waiting itself his subject; it is a reminder, and it contains no word of accusation. That the guest came at a run is the measure of how well it worked.

Source

Yamato Monogatari

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