Aki no yo no akanu wakare o tanabata wa tatenuki ni koso omou beranare - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

秋の夜の飽かぬ別れを七夕は
たてぬきにこそ思ふべらなれ

Roma-ji: Aki no yo no akanu wakare o tanabata wa tatenuki ni koso omou beranare
English Translation: Of the autumn night,
the parting that leaves her wanting,
the Weaver Maid, it seems,
like the warp and weft of her loom
turns over and over in her heart
Meaning: The Weaver Maid, it seems, turns over the parting of the autumn night that leaves her still wanting, back and forth like the warp and weft of her loom.
Commentary: Book Five Autumn Poems I 247

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed on Tanabata."
The poet says that the Weaver Maid seems to turn over the parting of the autumn night, which leaves her still wanting, back and forth like the warp and weft of her loom. Fittingly for one who weaves, it is a witty poem likening the thoughts of parting to warp and weft.
From 239 to 247, nine Tanabata poems stand under the headnote "Composed on Tanabata," taking up from many angles the meeting of the Weaver Maid and the Herdsman across the River of Heaven. This poem is the ninth, closing the sequence.
The poet, Ōshikōchi no Mitsune, was one of the compilers of the Kokin Wakashū and served as junior clerk of Kai and senior secretary of Izumi, among other posts. Though of low rank, he was ranked alongside Ki no Tsurayuki as a poet and is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets. His "kokoroate ni oraba ya oramu hatsushimo no" is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.

The first line, "Aki no yo no," means "of the autumn night," the same opening as 235 of this book. Where 235 wished that the night of meeting might not dawn, this poem sings of the thoughts after dawn has come and they have parted.
The second line, "akanu wakare o," means "the parting that leaves one still wanting." 249, two poems later, uses the same words, "akanu wakare no."
The third line, "tanabata wa," means "the Weaver Maid."
In the fourth line, "tatenuki" layers the warp and weft of a loom and the sense of "this way and that." It is an associated word of the Weaver Maid at her loom. "Koso" is an emphatic particle.
In the last line, "beranari" is an auxiliary of conjecture: "she seems to think." "Koso" in the fourth line with the perfective "nare" forms a kakarimusubi pattern. The sequence of poems composed on Tanabata closes here.
Author: Oshikochi no Mitsune
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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