Tsukuyo yoshi yo yoshi to hito ni tsugeyaraba ko chō ni nitari matazu shimo arazu - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

月夜よし夜よしと人に告げやらば
来てふに似たり待たずしもあらず

Roma-ji: Tsukuyo yoshi yo yoshi to hito ni tsugeyaraba ko chō ni nitari matazu shimo arazu
English Translation: "The moon is lovely,
lovely the night," should I send
such words to my love,
it would seem to say "come"—yet
it is not that I don't wait.
Meaning: If I sent word to him, "The moon is lovely, what a lovely night," it would be as good as saying "Come." And yet it is not as though I am not waiting.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 692

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
She would like to tell him of the lovely moonlit night, but doing so would amount to inviting him; after showing her shyness and hesitation, she lets her true feelings show in the last line. The twisting expression, reasoning its way through doubt before honestly confessing the wish to wait, gives the poem its charm.
Part of the sequence on waiting, it follows the woman left waiting in the preceding poem with a woman who waits yet hesitates to invite her lover herself.

The first line, "tsukuyo yoshi," means "the moonlit night is fine"; the poem pauses here.
The second line, "yo yoshi to hito ni," means "'a fine night,' to him," repeating "yoshi" from the first line to set the rhythm.
The third line, "tsugeyaraba," means "if I were to send word," a hypothesis.
The fourth line, "ko chō ni nitari," means "it would be like saying 'come'," "chō" being a contraction of "to iu"; the poem pauses here.
The final line, "matazu shimo arazu," means "it is not that I do not wait," modestly confessing her waiting heart through a double negative.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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