Akatoki to kake wa naku nari yoshieyashi hitori nuru yo wa akeba akenu tomo

暁と鶏は鳴くなりよしゑやし
ひとり寝る夜は明けば明けぬとも

Roma-ji: Akatoki to kake wa naku nari yoshieyashi hitori nuru yo wa akeba akenu tomo
English Translation: "Daybreak!" they declare,
the roosters, crowing their call;
well then, let it be:
as for this night spent alone,
if it dawns, then let it dawn
Meaning: The rooster crows that it is daybreak. Well, so be it: a night I sleep alone may dawn if it will.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2800

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
Hearing the rooster announce the dawn, the woman says with a shrug that a night spent alone, with no lover beside her, may dawn if it will. The dawn that is mourned after a night shared means nothing after a night alone: a lament tinged with self-mockery.
In the sequence on birds, this poem weaves in the cry of the rooster. The rooster's call announcing the morning parting is common in love poetry, but here it is turned around and heard on a night spent alone. Poem 2803 is another that weaves in the rooster.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather the love poems of people whose names have not come down to us.

First line, "akatoki to": "that it is dawn." "Akatoki" is the dark hour before daybreak, and "to" marks what the rooster's cry declares.
Second line, "kake wa naku nari": "the rooster seems to be crowing." "Kake" is an old word for the rooster, and "nari" is an auxiliary of inference based on sound; a pause falls here.
Third line, "yoshieyashi": "well then, so be it," a word expressing a careless, resigned feeling.
Fourth line, "hitori nuru yo wa": "as for a night I sleep alone." The particle "wa" sets off the night alone, as opposed to a night shared.
Fifth line, "akeba akenu tomo": "if it dawns, let it dawn." Repeating the same verb strengthens the defiant feeling that it does not matter. "Nu" is the perfective auxiliary and "tomo" marks a concessive supposition.
Source: Manyoshu
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