Akatsuki no nakaramashikaba shiratsuyu no okite wabishiki wakare semashi ya - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

暁のなからましかば白露の
おきてわびしき別れせましや

Roma-ji: Akatsuki no nakaramashikaba shiratsuyu no okite wabishiki wakare semashi ya
English Translation: If there were no dawn,
no hour before the morning,
would I, like white dew,
rise up and go away
in such a dreary parting
Meaning: If there were no such thing as dawn, would I ever have to rise like the settling white dew and part from you so sadly?
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems IV 862

Headnote: "Sent after returning from a lover's house."
The poet asks whether, if there were no dawn, he would have to rise like the white dew and part so sadly. He voices the pain of having to rise before daybreak and leave after a night together, in the form of wishing there were no dawn.
According to the headnote, the poem was sent after he came home from a lover's house. The next poem, 863, is the reply, and the two form an exchange. 826 in this book also sings of "shiratsuyu no okite."
The poet, listed as "Tsurayuki," was Ki no Tsurayuki. A son of Ki no Mochiyuki, he was the chief compiler of the Kokin Wakashū and wrote its Japanese preface. He is also known as the author of the Tosa Diary.

The first line, "Akatsuki no," means "if dawn."
The second line, "nakaramashikaba," means "did not exist," with "mashikaba" a counterfactual supposition corresponding to "mashi" in the last line.
The third line, "shiratsuyu no," means "like the white dew," leading into "oki" in the fourth line, since dew settles. 826 in this book sets "shiratsuyu no" in its first line and likewise leads on to "okite."
The fourth line, "okite wabishiki," means "rising in sorrow," with "oki" meaning both dew "settling" and "rising" from bed. The next poem, 863, answers by opening with "okite yuku."
The last line, "wakare semashi ya," means "would I have such a parting—no," with "ya" rhetorical.
Author: Ki no Tsurayuki
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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