Waga koi wa au o kagiri no tanomi dani yukue mo shiranu sora no ukigumo - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

わが恋は逢ふを限りの頼みだに
ゆくへも知らぬ空のうき雲

Roma-ji: Waga koi wa au o kagiri no tanomi dani yukue mo shiranu sora no ukigumo
English Translation: This love of mine is
one whose only hope is meeting,
yet that hope itself
knows not where it drifts, a cloud
of sorrow in the sky.
Meaning: My love rests its last hope on meeting, yet even that hope is like a doleful cloud drifting in the sky, not knowing where it goes.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 1135

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "From a hundred-poem sequence, on the idea of love."
This is the third of three poems on love linked to clouds. The speaker's love rests its last hope on meeting, yet even that hope is a doleful cloud in the sky that knows not where it goes. The headnote continues from the preceding poem; it is a love poem from a hundred-poem sequence.
The author, "Michitomo, Intendant of the Right Gate Guards," is Minamoto no Michitomo. The son of Palace Minister Minamoto no Michichika, he became one of the compilers of the Shin Kokinshū.

The first line, "waga koi wa," means "my love." Poem 1114 in this book begins with the same line, there too showing the state of love through a figure.
The second line, "au o kagiri no," means "whose last hope is meeting."
The third line, "tanomi dani," means "even that hope," with "dani" naming the lesser thing to imply the greater.
The fourth line, "yukue mo shiranu," is the same as the fourth line of poem 1133 in this book. The three poems on clouds, which began with the drifting clouds over Mount Tatsuta, are closed by the same line.
In the last line, "sora no ukigumo," "uki" holds both "uki," drifting in the sky, and "uki," doleful, and the poem ends on a noun. Setting the same "ukigumo" as the preceding poem in its last line, it shows even the hope of love to be as fleeting as a drifting cloud. It echoes the opening poem, 1081, which grieved over love's end in a traceless cloud, singing through clouds of love whose course cannot be fixed.
Author: Minamoto no Michitomo
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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