Ausaka no yūtsukedori ni araba koso kimi ga yukiki o nakunaku mo mime - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

逢坂の木綿付け鳥にあらばこそ
君が行き来をなくなくも見め

Roma-ji: Ausaka no yūtsukedori ni araba koso kimi ga yukiki o nakunaku mo mime
English Translation: If only I were
the cock of Ōsaka Barrier,
with its mulberry cloth,
then your coming and going
I could watch, though crying still.
Meaning: If only I were the mulberry-bannered cock of Ōsaka Barrier, I could at least watch you come and go, crying all the while.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 740

Headnote: "Composed and sent when Minamoto no Noboru Ason, later Middle Counselor, was serving as vice-governor of Ōmi"
Sent to Minamoto no Noboru while he was at his post as vice-governor of Ōmi, the poem says that if she were the cock crying at Ōsaka Barrier, she could at least watch him come and go between the capital and Ōmi, even in tears, voicing the loneliness of living apart.
Following the preceding poem of trying to hold back a lover, it laments that she cannot even watch the comings and goings of one far away.
The author, "Kan'in," is a woman poet whose identity is not settled. "Kan'in" was originally the name of Fujiwara no Fuyutsugu's mansion, and the name is thought to be that of a woman connected with it; one theory identifies her with "Kan'in no Go" who appears in the Gosenshū and The Tales of Yamato.

The first line, "Ausaka no," refers to the Ōsaka Barrier on the border between Yamashiro and Ōmi, through which travelers from the capital to Ōmi passed; it is a famed poetic place carrying the sense of "au" (to meet).
The second line, "yūtsukedori ni," is another name for the rooster, said to come from the practice of releasing roosters bearing mulberry-bark cloth at the barriers in purification rites.
The third line, "araba koso," means "only if I were," with the particle "koso" forming a kakari-musubi with "me" in the last line.
The fourth line, "kimi ga yukiki o," means "your coming and going" between the capital and Ōmi.
In the final line, "nakunaku mo mime," "naku" is a pivot word joining the bird's crying and her own weeping, and "me," the perfective form of the conjectural "mu," completes the "koso."
Author: Kan'in
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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