Akigiri no tomo ni tachiidete wakarenaba harenu omoi ni koi ya wataramu - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

秋霧のともにたち出でて別れなば
はれぬ思ひに恋ひや渡らむ

Roma-ji: Akigiri no tomo ni tachiidete wakarenaba harenu omoi ni koi ya wataramu
English Translation: If you rise and go,
together with the autumn mist,
and part from me,
must I go on longing
with thoughts that never clear?
Meaning: If you set out and leave me, rising together with the autumn mist, must I go on longing for you, my thoughts never clearing, like mist that never lifts?
Commentary: Book Eight Parting Poems 386

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed on the occasion when the courtiers were granted wine as Fujiwara no Nochikage was leaving near the end of the Ninth Month as envoy for Chinese goods"
This poem was composed at the same farewell gathering as the preceding one. Imagining the traveler setting out just as the autumn mist rises, the poet foresees that, like the mist that does not lift, his heart will not clear, and he will go on longing after the parting.
The author, "Taira no Motonori," was a son of Taira no Nakaki and served as Lieutenant of the Left Gate Guards.

The first line, "the autumn mist," is an autumn image that echoes the words "rise" and "never clear." Taking up "autumn parting" in the preceding poem, it carries on the same autumnal mood.
The second line, "rise and go together," is a pivot word joining the rising of mist with setting out on a journey, so that the traveler departs together with the rising mist.
The third line, "and part from me," is the hypothetical form made from the perfective nu plus ba, sharing the same construction as the fourth line of poem 370, "once you rise and part."
The fourth line, "thoughts that never clear," is a pivot word joining mist that does not clear with a heart that does not clear, forming an associated word with "autumn mist" in the first line.
The last line, "must I go on longing," binds the particle ya with the conjectural mu, lamenting whether he will go on longing. It shares the same phrase as the second line of poem 383, "must I go on longing."
Author: Taira no Motonori
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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