Tanome oku hito mo nagara no yama ni dani sayo fukenureba matsukaze no koe - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

頼めおく人もながらの山にだに
さ夜更けぬれば松風の声

Roma-ji: Tanome oku hito mo nagara no yama ni dani sayo fukenureba matsukaze no koe
English Translation: Even on the mount
of Nagara, where no one
leaves a promise,
when the night grows late and deep
comes the voice of the pine wind
Meaning: Even on Mount Nagara, whose very name says no one is there to make a promise, when the night grows late there comes the voice of the wind in the pines.
Commentary: Book Thirteen Love Poems III 1202

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the sixth poem of the sequence on nights spent waiting for one who does not come. Even on Mount Nagara, whose name says there is no one to leave a promise, the pine wind sounds when the night grows late—implying the loneliness of one who waits. The headnote continues "Topic unknown" from the preceding poem, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Kamo no Chōmei," was a son of Kamo no Nagatsugu, a priest of the Lower Kamo Shrine, and served as a fellow of Retired Emperor Go-Toba's Bureau of Poetry. He later took holy orders and wrote An Account of My Hut.
Mount Nagara is a famous poetic place in Ōmi Province, rising behind Onjōji temple. It is sometimes sung with a pun on "nagara," "there being none."

The first line, "tanome oku," means "to leave a promise." Taking up "tanomuru kure" in the preceding poem, it carries on the word of promise.
In the second line, "hito mo nagara no," "nagara" is a pivot word meaning both "there being no one" and Mount Nagara.
The third line, "yama ni dani," means "even on the mountain," setting up the inference "even on a mountain where no one makes a promise."
The fourth line, "sayo fukenureba," means "when the night has grown late." Like "fukenuru ni" in 1200 of this book, it sings of the deepening of night.
The last line, "matsukaze no koe," is the same last line as in the preceding poem. Where that poem sang of the pine wind heard at a promised dusk, this one sings of the pine wind on a mountain where no one makes a promise, forming a paired composition in which the presence of a promise is reversed. If even on a mountain without promises the late-night pine wind is lonely, how much more so for one who waits relying on a promise—this feeling remains as lingering resonance.
Author: Kamo no Chomei
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
Prev Poem: Ikaga fuku mi ni shimu iro no kawaru kana tanomuru kure no matsukaze no koe
Next Poem: Ima kon to tanomeshi koto o wasurezu wa kono yūgure no tsuki ya matsuran