Au koto no akenu yo nagara akenureba ware koso kaere kokoro ya wa yuku - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

逢ふことのあけぬ夜ながら明けぬれば
我こそ帰れ心やは行く

Roma-ji: Au koto no akenu yo nagara akenureba ware koso kaere kokoro ya wa yuku
English Translation: Though our meeting's door
was never opened this night,
the night broke to dawn;
I myself must now go home—
but does my heart go with me
Meaning: The door to our meeting never opened, and yet the night has broken to dawn; so I must go home, but would my heart go with me? Never.
Commentary: Book Thirteen Love Poems III 1168

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the second poem of the sequence on parting at dawn. The door to their meeting never opened, yet the night has broken; the body goes home, but would the heart go too? The poem is spoken from the standpoint of the one going home. The headnote continues "Topic unknown" from the preceding poem, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Ise," was a daughter of Fujiwara no Tsugukage, Governor of Ise, and served Onshi, Empress to Emperor Uda. She is counted among the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.

The first line, "au koto no," means "of our meeting." It takes up the lament of the preceding poem, of a night spent awake without meeting.
In the second line, "akenu yo nagara," "ake" is a pivot word meaning both "the door opens" and "the night breaks." It means "while the door to meeting was still closed, while the night had not yet broken."
The third line, "akenureba," means "since the night has broken." Repeating "ake" in the second and third lines shows the irony of a night that broke to dawn without the door ever opening. As in "akegataki" in the first line of the preceding poem, dawning and opening overlap.
The fourth line, "ware koso kaere," means "I myself go home, but," the particle "koso" closing in the realis form "kaere" and continuing concessively.
The last line, "kokoro ya wa yuku," means "does my heart go? no." "Ya wa" is rhetorical, and the poem ends with the idea of separating body and heart: the body returns home, but the heart remains with the beloved.
Author: Ise
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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