Ikade ware hito ni mo towamu akatsuki no akanu wakare ya nani ni nitari to - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

いかで我人にも問はむ暁の
飽かぬ別れや何に似たりと

Roma-ji: Ikade ware hito ni mo towamu akatsuki no akanu wakare ya nani ni nitari to
English Translation: Somehow I would ask
someone else to tell me:
this parting at dawn,
so full of unspent longing,
what is it most like
Meaning: Somehow I would like to ask someone: this parting before dawn, when we have not had our fill of each other, what on earth is it like?
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems III 719

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
The poet says he would somehow like to ask others what the reluctant parting at dawn resembles. By posing it as a question to others, he stresses the pain of the morning-after parting, which defies comparison.
In this book, from this poem through 721, poems on partings at daybreak follow one another, moving from "akatsuki" to "kesa" and "shinonome."
The poet, listed as "Tsurayuki," was Ki no Tsurayuki. One of the compilers of the Kokin Wakashū, he served as Governor of Tosa among other posts. He is also known as the author of the Tosa Diary and is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.

The first line, "Ikade ware," means "somehow I."
The second line, "hito ni mo towamu," means "would ask others," with "mu" expressing intention. The poem pauses here, in inverted order with the lines that follow.
The third line, "akatsuki no," means "of the dark hours before dawn." The next poems continue with words for daybreak: "kesa" in 720 and "shinonome" in 721.
The fourth line, "akanu wakare ya," means "the parting not yet sated," with "ya" expressing a question.
The last line, "nani ni nitari to," means "what is it like."
Author: Ki no Tsurayuki
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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