Moshi mo ya to aimimu koto o tanomazu wa kaku furu hodo ni mazu zo kenamashi - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

もしもやとあひ見むことを頼まずは
かく経るほどにまづぞ消なまし

Roma-ji: Moshi mo ya to aimimu koto o tanomazu wa kaku furu hodo ni mazu zo kenamashi
English Translation: "Perhaps, perhaps"—
had I not set my hopes on
the day we'd meet,
then in these days that pass
I'd have vanished long before
Meaning: If I had not clung to the hope that we might meet someday, I would surely have faded away first in all this time that has passed.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems IV 821

Headnote: "Reply."
The poet says that had he not relied on the hope that they might meet, he would have faded away first in the time that has passed. To Ise, who demanded that he know her heart even after her death, he answers that it is he who lives on by clinging to the hope of meeting.
It is the reply to the preceding poem, 820, answering its "shinite mo," even in death, with "kenamashi," the fading of life.
The poet, called "the posthumous Chancellor," was Fujiwara no Tokihira. The eldest son of Regent Fujiwara no Mototsune, he rose to Minister of the Left and was posthumously granted the title of Chancellor. He is also known for having Sugawara no Michizane sent away to Dazaifu.
The text gives the poet as "Zō Taikō Daijin," taken here as a miswriting of "Zō Dajō Daijin," the posthumous Chancellor, Fujiwara no Tokihira.

The first line, "Moshi mo ya to," means "thinking, perhaps."
The second line, "aimimu koto o," means "that we would meet."
The third line, "tanomazu wa," means "had I not relied on," with "zu wa" a negative supposition that corresponds to "mashi" in the last line.
The fourth line, "kaku furu hodo ni," means "while time passes thus."
The last line, "mazu zo kenamashi," means "I would have vanished first," with "zo" an emphatic binding particle closed by the attributive "mashi," a counterfactual auxiliary.
Author: Fujiwara no Tokihira
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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