Itazura ni suguru tsukihi o tanabata no au yo no kazu to omowamashikaba - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

いたづらに過ぐる月日をたなばたの
逢ふ夜の数と思はましかば

Roma-ji: Itazura ni suguru tsukihi o tanabata no au yo no kazu to omowamashikaba
English Translation: All the months and days
that pass by me to no end,
if only I could think
of them as the Weaver's nights
spent in meeting with her love.
Meaning: If only I could count the months and days that pass in vain as the nights when the Weaver meets her love.
Commentary: Book Three Autumn Poems 151

Headnote: "For a folding screen at the house of Fujiwara no Kanehira, Commander of the Left Military Guards"
If only, the poet wishes, the months and days that pass uneventfully could be counted as the nights when the Weaver meets her love. Feeling for the Weaver, who can meet her love only one night a year, the poem also overlays a lament for the poet's own days slipping by in vain. According to the headnote, it accompanied a folding screen at the house of Fujiwara no Kanehira, Commander of the Left Military Guards.
The author, written as Egyō Hōshi, was a monk and poet of the mid-Heian period. He associated with the poets who gathered around the monk Anpō, who lived at the Kawara Palace, and he is counted among the Later Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "itazura ni," means "in vain."
Second line, "suguru tsukihi o," means "the months and days that pass."
Third line, "tanabata no," the same words as the preceding poem's third line, means "of the Weaver."
Fourth line, "au yo no kazu to," means "as the number of nights of meeting." Whereas the preceding poem turned one night a year into endless autumns, this one wishes to count all the passing days as nights of meeting, pairing with it through a difference of scale, everyday time against a single night.
Final line, "omowamashikaba," means "if only I could think so," with "mashikaba" expressing a contrary-to-fact condition. Leaving unsaid the outcome that would follow, it lets the poem resonate.
Author: Egyō
Source: Shui Wakashu
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