Ware koso ya minu hito kouru yamai sure au hi narade wa yamu kusuri nashi - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

我こそや見ぬ人恋ふる病すれ
あふひならでは止む薬なし

Roma-ji: Ware koso ya minu hito kouru yamai sure au hi narade wa yamu kusuri nashi
English Translation: It is I, indeed,
who am sick with longing so
for one I've not seen;
save the hollyhock, our meeting day,
there is no cure for this ill.
Meaning: It is I who suffer the sickness of loving one I have never seen; there is no medicine to cure it but the day of our meeting.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems I 665

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
The poem says that it is the poet who suffers the sickness of loving one never seen, and that there is no medicine to cure it but the day of their meeting. Likening love to sickness, and its only cure to meeting, it pivots "au hi" on "the day we meet" and "aoi," the hollyhock, singing through the association with medicine. Like "minu hito no koishiki" in 629, it sings of love for one unseen.

First line, "ware koso ya," means "it is I indeed," with the binding particle "koso" resolved by the perfective form "sure" in the third line.
Second line, "minu hito kouru," means "loving one I have not seen," speaking, like the first line of 629, "minu hito no," of love for one unseen.
Third line, "yamai sure," means "suffer the sickness," and the poem breaks after this third line.
Fourth line, "au hi narade wa," is a pivot word: "au hi" means "the day we meet" and "aoi," the hollyhock, with "narade wa" meaning "other than."
Final line, "yamu kusuri nashi," means "there is no medicine to cure it." "Yamai," sickness, in the third line, "kusuri," medicine, and "yamu," to cease, are associated words.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Shui Wakashu
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