Ware nomi zo kanashikarikeru hikoboshi mo awade sugoseru toshi shi nakereba - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

我のみぞ悲しかりける彦星も
逢はで過ぐせる年しなければ

Roma-ji: Ware nomi zo kanashikarikeru hikoboshi mo awade sugoseru toshi shi nakereba
English Translation: It is I alone
who know such sorrow, for even
the Herdsman Star
has never passed a single year
without meeting his love.
Meaning: I alone am truly sad; for even the Herdsman Star has never let a year go by without meeting his beloved.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 612

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poet says that since even the Herdsman Star, who can meet his love only once a year, has never let a year pass without meeting her, he alone, who has never met his beloved, is truly sad. Invoking the Herdsman Star of the Tanabata legend, he highlights the sorrow of his own lot, in which even a yearly meeting is denied.
Ōshikōchi no Mitsune was a poet of the early Heian period and one of the compilers of the Kokinshū. He held low provincial posts such as Junior Clerk of Kai and Senior Secretary of Izumi, but his poetic talent was highly regarded. He is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.

First line, "ware nomi zo": nomi is restrictive and zo is a binding particle paired with keru in the second line, stressing "I alone."
Second line, "kanashikarikeru": keru is the attributive resolving zo, expressing realization. The poem breaks here, after the second line.
Third line, "hikoboshi mo": hikoboshi is the Herdsman Star, Altair, who in the Tanabata legend meets the Weaver Star once a year on the night of the seventh day of the Seventh Month. Mo means "even that star."
Fourth line, "awade sugoseru": de is a negative conjunctive particle, "without meeting," and ru is the attributive of the continuative auxiliary ri.
Fifth line, "toshi shi nakereba": shi is an emphatic particle, closing with the reason "since there is no such year." Following the previous poem, 611, which sings of a heart that wishes only to meet, it laments the poet's inability to meet by comparison with the star who meets once a year.
Author: Oshikochi no Mitsune
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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