Kaze o dani kouru wa tomoshi kaze o dani komu to shi mataba nani ka nagekamu

風をだに恋ふるは羨し風をだに
来むとし待たば何か嘆かむ

Roma-ji: Kaze o dani kouru wa tomoshi kaze o dani komu to shi mataba nani ka nagekamu
English Translation: Even for the wind,
to long for it is enviable;
even the wind, if
I could wait believing it would come,
what then would I have to mourn?
Meaning: How I envy you, who can long even for the wind; if I too could wait, believing that even the wind would come, what would I have to grieve over?
Commentary: Book Eight Autumn Love Poems 1607

Headnote: "A poem composed by Princess Kagami"
Answering Princess Nukata's preceding poem, she says it is enviable to be able to wait, thinking of a lover's visit even in the wind that stirs the blinds; if she too could wait believing that even the wind would come, she would have nothing to grieve. By comparing herself with Nukata's situation, she expresses more deeply the loneliness of having no one to visit her. The same poem also appears in Book Four as 489.
The author, Princess Kagami, is said to have been favored by Emperor Tenji and later to have become the principal wife of Fujiwara no Kamatari. Some consider her the elder sister of Princess Nukata.

In the first line, "dani" means "at least, even."
The second line means "to long is enviable," and the poem pauses here.
The third line repeats the words of the first, intensifying the ache of turning one's longing even to the wind.
The fourth line, with the emphatic "shi," means "if I could wait thinking it would come."
The final line, with the rhetorical "ka," denies: what would I grieve over? Nothing. By contrast, this brings out the loneliness of one who has no one even to wait for. Taking up "the autumn wind blows" of the preceding poem and weaving "wind" in twice, the two poems form a matched exchange.
Author: Princess Kagami
Source: Manyoshu
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