Ima wa haya uchitokenubeki shiratsuyu no kokoro oku made yo o ya henikeru - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

今ははや打ち解けぬべき白露の
心おくまで夜をや経にける

Roma-ji: Ima wa haya uchitokenubeki shiratsuyu no kokoro oku made yo o ya henikeru
English Translation: Now by this time, surely,
we should have melted together—
like the white dew settling,
till your heart sets up a wall,
have so many nights gone by
Meaning: By now we should have melted into each other—have so many nights passed that, like settling white dew, your heart has come to hold me at a distance?
Commentary: Book Six Autumn Poems II 284

Headnote: "Reply."
She replies that by now they should have opened their hearts to each other, yet have so many nights passed that, like settling white dew, his heart has come to hold her at a distance? Turning his own words about long nights against him, she asks why, after so long, a barrier still remains in his heart.
It forms an exchange with the preceding poem, 283. The four-poem exchange that began with 281 closes with this poem.
The poet, called "Taifu," was a lady-in-waiting said to have been a daughter of Minamoto no Tasuku. She is thought to have served Fujiwara no Yasuko, empress of Emperor Daigo, and exchanged many poems with the brothers Fujiwara no Saneyori and Morosuke, among others.

The first line, "Ima wa haya," means "by now, already."
In the second line, "nubeki" combines intensification and expectation: "should surely have melted." "Toke," melting, also suggests the vanishing of dew and is an associated word of "shiratsuyu."
The third line, "shiratsuyu no," means "the white dew," leading into "oku."
In the fourth line, "oku" is a pivot word joining "oku," for dew to settle, and "oku," to set a barrier in the heart. It takes up the pivot word in "oki akasu," the first line of the preceding poem.
In the last line, "ya" is an interrogative particle forming a kakarimusubi pattern with the attributive "keru": "have so many nights passed?" It takes up "henikereba" in the preceding poem.
Author: Taifu
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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