Aga koi wa nagusame kanetsu makenagaku ime ni miezute toshi no henureba

我が恋は慰めかねつま日長く
夢に見えずて年の経ぬれば

Roma-ji: Aga koi wa nagusame kanetsu makenagaku ime ni miezute toshi no henureba
English Translation: This love of mine
I cannot find a way to soothe;
for long days on end
you have not appeared in dreams,
and so the years have gone by
Meaning: My love can find no consolation, for through long days you have not appeared in my dreams, and the years have slipped away.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2814

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Questions and Answers"
Because the years have passed without the beloved appearing even in dreams for so long, the speaker laments that this love can find no consolation. It sings of the loneliness of losing even the meetings in dreams that had comforted the days without meeting.
This is a question-and-answer poem, paired with the next by the left note "the two poems above." The next poem takes up "makenagaku" and "ime ni miezute" and replies that even if the beloved does not appear even in dreams and the bond is broken, the speaker's one-sided love will never cease. Where the preceding pair told of meeting in a dream, this pair laments being unable to meet even in dreams, so the two pairs stand in contrast over meetings in dreams.
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, "aga koi wa": "my love." The particle "wa" singles out the speaker's love.
Second line, "nagusame kanetsu": "I cannot console it." "Kane" expresses being unable to do what one tries to do, and the perfective "tsu" closes the statement, bringing a pause after the second line.
Third line, "makenagaku": "for many long days." "Ma" is a prefix and "ke" means days. The same word appears in the first line of the next poem.
Fourth line, "ime ni miezute": "not appearing in dreams." "Zute" is the negative "zu" with the conjunctive "te," expressing days passing without meeting even in dreams.
Fifth line, "toshi no henureba": "because the years have passed." "Nure" is the realis form of the perfective "nu," and with "ba" it gives a definite reason. In inverted order it supplies afterward the reason for "nagusame kanetsu" in the second line.
Source: Manyoshu
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