Yaemugura sashiteshi kado o imasara ni nani ni kuyashiku akete machiken - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

八重葎さしてし門をいまさらに
何にくやしく開けて待ちけん

Roma-ji: Yaemugura sashiteshi kado o imasara ni nani ni kuyashiku akete machiken
English Translation: A gate the thick weeds
had long since grown over and shut—
why now, at this late hour,
to my bitter regret,
did I open it and wait
Meaning: Why, after all this time, did I open the gate that the tangled weeds had long since shut, only to wait there to my bitter regret?
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems VI 1055

Headnote: "Composed when someone who had long failed to visit remembered her and sent word, 'I will come tonight; leave the gate unlocked and wait for me,' and then did not come."
The poet asks why, at this late hour, she opened and waited at a gate that tangled weeds had long since shut. She trusted the word of a man who had long stayed away, opened her gate and waited, and expresses her regret at his failure to come through the image of a gate overgrown with weeds.
According to the headnote, someone who had long failed to visit remembered her and sent word that he would come that night and that she should leave the gate open, but he did not come. 1032 in this book is also a poem of waiting all night for one who promised to come and did not.
The poet is listed as anonymous, and the composer's name has not come down to us.

The first line, "Yaemugura," means "tangled weeds grown thick," picturing a ruined house no one visits.
The second line, "sashiteshi kado o," means "the gate that had been shut," with "sashi" meaning to close a gate, saying that the weeds had closed it.
The third line, "imasara ni," means "now, at this late hour."
The fourth line, "nani ni kuyashiku," means "why, to my regret."
The last line, "akete machiken," means "did I open it and wait," with "ken" an auxiliary conjecturing a cause in the past. It pairs with the "sashi," shutting, of the second line.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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