Ikite yomo asu made hito mo tsurakaraji kono yūgure o towaba toe kashi - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

生きてよも明日まで人もつらからじ
この夕暮れを問はば問へかし

Roma-ji: Ikite yomo asu made hito mo tsurakaraji kono yūgure o towaba toe kashi
English Translation: Surely I'll not live
until tomorrow, nor will you
be cruel so long;
if you mean to visit me,
then come this evening, come now.
Meaning: Surely I will not live until tomorrow, so you cannot go on being cruel to me that long; if you mean to visit me, then come this very evening.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 1329

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "From a hundred-poem sequence."
This is the twelfth and last poem of the sequence of love's grief sung through autumn imagery. I will surely not live until tomorrow, so you cannot be cruel that long, the speaker says; if you will visit, come this evening. Continuing from the preceding poem, it is one poem from a hundred-poem sequence.
No author is named in the original; continuing from the preceding poem, it is by Princess Shikishi. She was a daughter of Emperor Go-Shirakawa, served in her youth as High Priestess of the Kamo Shrines, and studied poetry under Fujiwara no Shunzei.
In the main text, the second line reads "asu made hito mo," which does not match "asu made hito wa" in the reading line. Here the main text is followed.

In the first line, "ikite yomo," "yomo" pairs with the negative conjecture "ji" below: "surely not." It shows the feeling that she will not live until tomorrow.
The second line, "asu made hito mo," means "you too, until tomorrow."
The third line, "tsurakaraji," means "you cannot be cruel," and the poem breaks after it. It sets up the reasoning that if she dies, he will have no one left to be cold to.
The fourth line, "kono yūgure o," means "this very evening." Against the long months of waiting in the preceding poem, the time remaining is narrowed to this single evening.
In the last line, "towaba toe kashi," "kashi" adds insistence: "if you will visit, then visit now." With the end of life set before it, this urgent appeal closes the sequence sung through autumn imagery.
Author: Princess Shokushi
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
Prev Poem: Saritomo to machishi tsukihi zo utsuriyuku kokoro no hana no iro ni makasete
Next Poem: Akatsuki no namida ya sora ni taguuramu sode ni ochikuru kane no oto kana