Kore mo mata nagaki wakare ni nari ya sen kure o matsubeki inochi naraneba - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

これもまた長き別れになりやせん
暮れを待つべき命ならねば

Roma-ji: Kore mo mata nagaki wakare ni nari ya sen kure o matsubeki inochi naraneba
English Translation: This parting as well—
will it become a long one,
a parting forever?
for this life of mine will not
last long enough to wait for dusk
Meaning: Will this parting, too, become a parting forever? For my life will not last long enough to wait until dusk.
Commentary: Book Thirteen Love Poems III 1192

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the fourth poem of the sequence on waiting for the next evening after a meeting. Will this parting, too, become a parting forever? For his life will not last until dusk. The headnote continues "Topic unknown" from the preceding poem, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Fujiwara no Tomoie," was a poet of the early Kamakura period belonging to the lineage of the Rokujō Fujiwara house.

The first line, "kore mo mata," means "this one too." "Mata," "again," implies "like the partings before."
The second line, "nagaki wakare ni," means "into a parting forever." The phrase suggests parting by death, widening a lovers' parting into a matter of life itself.
The third line, "nari ya sen," means "will it not become so?" with a pause after the third line. The particle "ya" forms a kakari-musubi with the conjectural "n."
The fourth line, "kure o matsubeki," means "that could wait for dusk." Like "kure o matsu ma no" in 1190 of this book, it sings of waiting for the evening of the next meeting.
The last line, "inochi naraneba," means "since it is not such a life." It closes with the hyperbole that, in the pain of parting, life will not last until evening. Just as the opening poem wished for a life ending today and the poems from 1151 on bound meeting to life, this poem too measures love's time by the length of life.
Author: Fujiwara no Tomoie
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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