Konu hito o matsu yūgure no akikaze wa ika ni fukeba ka wabishikaruramu - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

来ぬ人を待つ夕暮れの秋風は
いかに吹けばかわびしかるらむ

Roma-ji: Konu hito o matsu yūgure no akikaze wa ika ni fukeba ka wabishikaruramu
English Translation: At the evening hour
when I wait for one who won't come,
the wind of autumn,
how is it that it blows
to make me feel so forlorn?
Meaning: The autumn wind at dusk, as I wait for someone who does not come: how does it blow, that it makes me feel so desolate?
Commentary: Book Fifteen Love Poems V 777

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
The poem asks why the autumn wind at dusk, while waiting for a lover who does not come, feels so desolate. Though the speaker knows the cause lies in the waiting heart, she blames it on the way the wind blows, and a helpless loneliness seeps through. Some readers also hear aki, "weariness," in "autumn."

The first line, "one who does not come," takes the lover's absence as given from the start.
The second line names dusk, the hour of waiting for a visit, a scene shared with poem 772.
The third line names the autumn wind at dusk, an image that invites loneliness.
The fourth line asks "how does it blow?" with the question particle ka, resolved by ramu in the last line.
In the last line wabishi means forlorn or desolate, and ramu is the attributive of causal conjecture.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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