Akade nomi fureba narubeshi awanu yo mo au yo mo hito o aware to zo omou

English Translation

It must be because
I go on never having
enough of you — for
on nights we meet and nights we
do not, you are dear to me

Meaning

It must be because I never have enough of you: on the nights we meet and the nights we do not, you are dear to me.

Commentary

134 Never Enough

In the reign of the late Emperor Daigo, there was a pretty young girl in one of the rooms of the palace. The emperor noticed her and summoned her in secret, and continued to send for her from time to time, taking care that no one should know. He then composed this poem for her. It moved her so deeply that she could not keep it to herself and told a friend what he had said to her; word reached the Lady of the Bedchamber whom she served, and the girl was turned out. It was a hard thing.
Emperor Daigo appears from the hundred and thirty-first section onwards. Of the girl the prose says only that she was a pretty child in one of the palace rooms. The Lady of the Bedchamber was the mistress she served.
The setting is the palace, during their secret meetings.
The prose records nothing further of what prompted the poem, saying only that he composed it then.
The girl was moved by it and let it slip to a friend; word reached her mistress and she was turned out. The section closes on the narrator's remark that it was a hard thing.

The opening means going on without ever being satisfied; the verb for having enough is negated, and a particle of limitation makes the state continuous.
What follows supposes that this is the reason, giving the cause before the feeling.
The fourth line pairs the nights they meet with the nights they do not, so that meeting makes no difference.
The closing says she is dear to him, with an emphatic particle governing the verb. That his feeling is the same whether or not they meet is what an emperor tells a young servant — and the very depth of it is what makes her speak, and lose her place.

Source

Yamato Monogatari

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