classic waka stream

今は来じと思ふものから忘れつつ
待たるることのまだもやまぬか
Roma-ji

Ima wa koji to omou mono kara wasuretsutsu mataruru koto no mada mo yamanu ka

English Translation
"You will come no more,"
so I think, and yet I find
I forget again
and still keep waiting for you;
will this never come to end?
Meaning
Though I think you will not come anymore, I keep forgetting it and find myself waiting again. Will this waiting never stop?
Commentary
Book Fifteen Love Poems V 774

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
The speaker is exasperated with a heart that keeps forgetting the lover will not come, and so keeps waiting. Using the same omou mono kara as poem 772, it shows how the heart lags behind reason's resignation. Within the sequence on waiting, it focuses on the inability to stop waiting itself.

In the first line ji is negative conjecture: "you will not come now." The line is hypermetric at six syllables.
In the second line mono kara is concessive, "though I think so," the same phrase as the second line of poem 772.
In the third line tsutsu marks repetition: forgetting again and again.
In the fourth line ruru, attributive of the spontaneous ru, means "finding myself waiting."
In the last line mada mo means "still," and yamanu ka adds questioning and exclamatory ka to the negative: will it still not stop?
Author
Unknown Poet
Source
Kokin Wakashu
Prev Poem
Imashi wa to wabinishi mono o sasagani no koromo ni kakari ware o tanomuru
Next Poem
Tsukiyo ni wa konu hito mataru kakikumori ame mo furanamu wabitsutsu mo nemu