Hikoboshi no omoi masuran koto yori mo miru ware kurushi yo no fukeyukeba - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

彦星の思ひますらん事よりも
見る我苦し夜の更けゆけば

Roma-ji: Hikoboshi no omoi masuran koto yori mo miru ware kurushi yo no fukeyukeba
English Translation: More than the Herdsman
whose longing must be growing,
it is I who watch
who suffer more and more now,
as the night grows ever late.
Meaning: More than the Herdsman Star, whose longing must be mounting, it is I, watching, who suffer, as the night grows late.
Commentary: Book Three Autumn Poems 147

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
As the night deepens, the poet says that he who watches suffers more than the Herdsman Star himself, waiting for the meeting. The charm lies in claiming that the anxiety of one who watches over another's love exceeds even that of the Herdsman.
The author, written as Yuhara-dama, is Prince Yuhara; the main text writes "dama" (jewel), which appears to be an error for "ō" (prince). A son of Prince Shiki, he was an imperial poet of the Nara period who left poems in the Man'yōshū.
This poem appears in Book Eight of the Man'yōshū as a Tanabata poem by Prince Yuhara.

First line, "hikoboshi no," is the same first line as 142 of this book, and within the Tanabata sequence it again imagines the Herdsman's heart.
Second line, "omoi masuran," means "whose longing must be mounting," with "ran" as an auxiliary of present conjecture.
Third line, "koto yori mo," means "more than that," comparing the Herdsman with the poet himself.
Fourth line, "miru ware kurushi," means "I who watch am in pain." The poem pauses here. Taking up the preceding poem's gaze at the River of Heaven from the earth, it sings of the pain of the one who watches.
Final line, "yo no fukeyukeba," means "as the night grows late," the same phrase as the second line of 143 in this book. By inversion it gives after the fact the reason for the pain.
Author: Prince Yuhara
Source: Shui Wakashu
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