Chigiriki ya akanu wakare ni tsuyu okishi akatsuki bakari katami nare to wa - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

契りきやあかぬ別れに露置きし
暁ばかり形見なれとは

Roma-ji: Chigiriki ya akanu wakare ni tsuyu okishi akatsuki bakari katami nare to wa
English Translation: Did we ever vow
that of our parting, still unsated,
when the dew lay down,
that one dawn alone should be
all that's left as keepsake?
Meaning: Did we ever promise that the one dawn of our reluctant parting, when the dew of tears lay on us, would be our only keepsake?
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 1301

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On the topic 'Love That Met and Then Could Meet No More,' at the poetry contest of the third month of Kennin 1."
This is the third poem of the sequence on love that met and then could meet no more. Did we ever promise, the speaker asks, that the one dawn of our unwilling parting, when the dew of tears fell, would be our only keepsake? Continuing from the preceding poem, it was composed on the topic "Love That Met and Then Could Meet No More" at the poetry contest of the third month of Kennin 1.
The author, "Michitomo, Commander of the Right Gate Guards," is Minamoto no Michitomo. A son of the Palace Minister Minamoto no Michichika and elder brother of Minamoto no Michiteru, he was one of the compilers of the Shinkokinshū; Commander of the Right Gate Guards was his office when the collection was compiled.

The first line, "chigiriki ya," means "did we vow?" and the poem breaks after it; "ya" is rhetorical. The opening recalls "chigiriki na," the first line of Kiyohara no Motosuke's poem in the Goshūishū, "Did we not vow, each wringing tears from our sleeves, that no wave would cross Sue no Matsuyama?"—a poem which likewise ends in "to wa."
The second line, "akanu wakare ni," means "at a parting still unsated."
The third line, "tsuyu okishi," means "when the dew of tears lay." The dawn dew is overlaid with the tears of parting.
The fourth line, "akatsuki bakari," means "only that dawn," the dawn of parting after their single meeting.
The last line, "katami nare to wa," means "that it should be our keepsake," and runs back to the first line in inverted order. It sings the heart of the topic, lovers who met once and could meet no more, by saying that only one dawn remains as a keepsake. 1299 is by the author's father, Minamoto no Michichika, so that the poems of father and son are placed together on the same topic.
Author: Minamoto no Michitomo
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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