Mogami gawa noboreba kudaru inabune no ina ni wa arazu kono tsuki bakari - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

最上川上れば下る稲舟の
いなにはあらずこの月ばかり

Roma-ji: Mogami gawa noboreba kudaru inabune no ina ni wa arazu kono tsuki bakari
English Translation: The Mogami River:
going up and coming down,
the rice boats, ina,
and yet it is not no, I say,
only for this month, just this.
Meaning: Like the rice boats plying up and down the Mogami, ina, but it is not a no: only this month, please wait.
Commentary: Book Twenty Poems of the Bureau of Court Song 1092

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Songs of the East: Michinoku Song"
A woman answers a suitor: it is not a refusal, only that this month will not do. From the sound ina in the rice boats of the Mogami, she moves to "it is not no," a light-footed preface typical of folk song. As for why "only this month," some take it as a month of abstinence or of Shinto observance. No author is recorded.
The Michinoku songs are folk songs of the province of Michinoku, today's Tōhoku region, forming the group of seven from poem 1087 to 1093. They are provincial songs taken up into court performance.

The first line, "the Mogami River," flows through Dewa, a province split off from Michinoku and so counted among the Michinoku songs.
The second line, "going up and coming down," shows boats plying the river back and forth.
The third line, "the rice boats," names boats laden with harvested rice; the upper lines form a preface leading by sound to ina.
The fourth line, "it is not no," echoes the ina of inabune. The poem breaks here.
The last line, "only this month," leaves unsaid something like "please wait," trailing off with lingering feeling.
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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