Hikoboshi no omoimasuramu kokoro yori miru ware kurushi yo no fukeyukeba

彦星の思ひますらむ心より
見る我れ苦し夜の更けゆけば

Roma-ji: Hikoboshi no omoimasuramu kokoro yori miru ware kurushi yo no fukeyukeba
English Translation: More than the Herdsman
must be feeling in his heart,
more than all his pain,
I who watch am pained the more,
as the night grows ever late
Meaning: More than the Herdsman himself must be feeling, I who watch am pained, as the night grows ever later.
Commentary: Book Eight Autumn Miscellaneous Poems 1544

Headnote: "Two poems on the Tanabata festival by Prince Yuhara"
As the night of Tanabata deepens, the poet says that he, watching, suffers more than the Herdsman himself, who must be grieving that their time together is slipping away. It is a Tanabata poem from the standpoint of an onlooker deeply moved by the lovers in the heavens.
The author, Prince Yuhara, was a son of Prince Shiki and a member of the imperial family in the Nara period, known for the clarity of his poetic style.

The first line names the Herdsman star.
The second line, with the honorific "masu" and present conjectural "ramu," means "that he must be feeling."
The third line, "more than that heart," marks a comparison.
The fourth line states "I who watch am pained," and the poem pauses here. Whereas Yamanoue no Okura's Tanabata poems from 1518 on in this book are composed in the voice of the Herdsman or Weaver Maiden, this one takes the standpoint of one watching from the earth.
The final line means "as the night grows late," giving by inversion the reason for lamenting how short the meeting is.
Author: Prince Yuhara
Source: Manyoshu
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