Yukusue wa tsui ni sugitsutsu au koto no toshitsuki naki zo wabishikarikeru - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

行く末はつひに過ぎつつ逢ふことの
年月なきぞわびしかりける

Roma-ji: Yukusue wa tsui ni sugitsutsu au koto no toshitsuki naki zo wabishikarikeru
English Translation: The days yet to come
pass at last, one by one,
and there are no years,
no months in which we might meet,
and how bitter that has been!
Meaning: The days to come that I relied on pass by at last, one after another, and it is bitter that there are no years and months in which we meet.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems I 683

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
The poem says that the days to come that the poet relied on pass by at last, and it is bitter that there are no years and months in which they meet. It expresses the emptiness of waiting with hope pinned on the future while only the months and days slip away and no chance to meet ever comes. It shares the word "yukusue" with "kyō yukusue ni narine" in 680, and where that poem longed for the days to come, this one laments that even those days pass, a reversal of the same image.
The author, written as "Tsurayuki," is Ki no Tsurayuki. He was the leading compiler of the Kokinshū, wrote its kana preface and the Tosa Diary, and is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.
The third line of the main text reads "道ふウの," which is garbled and makes no sense. Since the reading line has "au koto no," it is taken here as an error for "逢ふことの," and the reading line is followed.

First line, "yukusue wa," means "the days to come," using the same word as the fourth line of 680, "kyō yukusue ni."
Second line, "tsui ni sugitsutsu," means "pass by at last," with "tsutsu" expressing continuation.
Third line, "au koto no," means "of meeting," the same line as the first line of 678, "au koto no."
Fourth line, "toshitsuki naki zo," means "that there are no years and months," with the binding particle "zo" resolved by "keru" in the final line.
Final line, "wabishikarikeru," means "how bitter it has been," with "keru," the attributive form of the past auxiliary "keri," carrying a note of lament.
Author: Ki no Tsurayuki
Source: Shui Wakashu
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