Ima zo shiru kurushiki mono to hito matamu sato o ba karezu tou bekarikeri - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

今ぞ知る苦しきものと人待たむ
里をば離れず訪ふべかりけり

Roma-ji: Ima zo shiru kurushiki mono to hito matamu sato o ba karezu tou bekarikeri
English Translation: Now at last I know
how painful it is to wait;
where someone waits for me,
to that village without fail
I should have gone to call.
Meaning: Now I know how painful it is to wait. I should have visited, without fail, the villages where someone must be waiting for me.
Commentary: Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems II 969

Headnote: "Sent when Ki no Toshisada was leaving to become Assistant Governor of Awa, and I had sent word that I would hold a farewell party for him that day, but he went about here and there and did not appear until late at night"
Narihira had arranged a farewell banquet for Ki no Toshisada, who was leaving to become Assistant Governor of Awa, and sent word that it would be held that day; but Toshisada went about here and there and did not appear until late at night, so Narihira sent this poem. Having learned the pain of waiting, he playfully reproaches his friend by saying that he himself ought to have visited the women waiting for him without fail.
A witty poem that shifts the pain of waiting for a friend into the position of a woman waiting for her lover, it displays Narihira's characteristic elegance.
The author, "Narihira no Ason," is Ariwara no Narihira; Ason is an honorific title. The son of Prince Abo and of Princess Ito, a daughter of Emperor Kanmu, he is one of the Six Poetic Immortals and the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals, and is identified with the hero of The Tales of Ise.

The first line, "now at last I know," uses zo with the attributive shiru; the poem breaks here, in inverted order with what follows.
The second line, "how painful it is to wait," names the pain of waiting for someone.
The third line, "where someone waits for me," uses mu in the attributive, modifying "village" in the fourth line.
The fourth line, "to that village without fail," uses karu, "to grow distant"; karezu means to keep visiting without a break.
The last line, "I should have gone to call," uses keri to express a sudden realization.
Author: Ariwara no Narihira
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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