Matsu yoi ni fukeyuku kane no koe kikeba akanu wakare no tori wa mono ka wa - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

待つ宵に更けゆく鐘の声聞けば
飽かぬ別れの鳥はものかは

Roma-ji: Matsu yoi ni fukeyuku kane no koe kikeba akanu wakare no tori wa mono ka wa
English Translation: On the waiting night
when I hear the tolling bell
sound the deepening hours,
the cock that ends a sweet parting
is nothing to that at all
Meaning: On an evening spent waiting for you, when I hear the bell toll the deepening night, the cock's crow that ends a parting we cannot bear is nothing at all by comparison.
Commentary: Book Thirteen Love Poems III 1191

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the third poem of the sequence on waiting for the next evening after a meeting. Compared with the pain of hearing the bell toll the deepening night while waiting for a lover, the cock's crow that announces a reluctant parting at dawn is nothing. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Kojijū," was a daughter of Ki no Mitsukiyo, Superintendent of Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine, and served Emperors Nijō and Takakura.
The Tale of the Heike relates that because of this poem she came to be called "Kojijū of the Waiting Evening."

The first line, "matsu yoi ni," means "on an evening spent waiting" for the lover's visit. Taking up "waiting for dusk" in the two preceding poems, time advances to the evening.
The second line, "fukeyuku kane no," means "of the bell that tells the deepening night." A temple bell tolls the hour, telling how long the wait for one who does not come has been.
The third line, "koe kikeba," means "when I hear its voice." The "bell" of the second line and the "cock" of the fourth are contrasted as voices that tell the time.
The fourth line, "akanu wakare no," means "of a parting that leaves one unsatisfied," pointing to the morning-after partings arranged in this book so far.
The last line, "tori wa mono ka wa," means "the cock is nothing." "Mono ka wa" is rhetorical, meaning that it does not count. The cock's crow at dawn has been held to be painful because it announces parting, but this poem turns the argument, saying the bell of the waiting evening is more painful still. It stands at the boundary between the morning-after poems and the poems of waiting.
Author: Kojiju
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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