Tare ka wa to omoitaete mo matsu ni nomi otozurete yuku kaze wa urameshi - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

誰かはと思ひ絶えてもまつにのみ
訪れてゆく風は恨めし

Roma-ji: Tare ka wa to omoitaete mo matsu ni nomi otozurete yuku kaze wa urameshi
English Translation: "Who would come to me?"
Though I have given up hope,
only to the pine,
calling as it passes by—
how I resent the wind.
Meaning: Though I have given up, thinking no one would come, the wind calls only at the pine where I wait and then moves on—how I resent it.
Commentary: Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems II 1622

Headnote: "Composed on the spirit of living in seclusion, when Prince-Priest Shukaku had fifty-poem sequences composed."
This is the second poem of the sequence on wind blowing about a mountain dwelling. Though the poet has given up, thinking no one will come, he resents the wind that calls only at the pine and moves on. According to the headnote, it was composed on the topic of living in seclusion when Prince-Priest Shukaku had fifty-poem sequences composed.
The author, "Ariie Ason," was a son of Fujiwara no Shigeie and one of the compilers of the Shin Kokinshū.
Prince-Priest Shukaku was a son of Emperor Go-Shirakawa who lived at Ninnaji and was called Omuro.

The first line, "tare ka wa to," means "who would come? No one." "Ka wa" expresses a rhetorical question.
The second line, "omoitaete mo," means "even though I have given up hope."
The third line, "matsu ni nomi," pivots on "matsu," both the "pine" in the garden and "waiting" for someone. "Nomi" limits it: "only to the pine."
The fourth line, "otozurete yuku," means "calling and then passing on." No person comes; only the wind visits.
The last line, "kaze wa urameshi," means "the wind is hateful." The poet resents the wind for waking the longing in a heart that had given up. Following the wind sound that changes each night in the preceding poem, here the wind that visits the pine is sung.
Author: Fujiwara no Ariie
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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