Ashihiki no yamashita kaze mo samukeki ni koyoi mo mata ya waga hitori nen - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

あしひきの山下風も寒けきに
今宵も又や我が独り寝ん

Roma-ji: Ashihiki no yamashita kaze mo samukeki ni koyoi mo mata ya waga hitori nen
English Translation: Even the wind that blows
down at the mountain's foothill
is cold, and tonight
must I once again lie down
alone, sleeping by myself?
Meaning: Even the wind blowing at the foot of the mountain is cold; must I sleep alone again tonight?
Commentary: Book Thirteen Love Poems III 777

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poem laments, on a night when even the wind blowing at the foot of the mountain is cold, whether one must sleep alone again tonight. It lays the chill of the mountain wind over the loneliness of the heart, singing of the desolation of spending the night alone while waiting for a lover who does not come.
This is the opening poem of the third book of love poems. From here to 782, six poems in a row begin with "ashihiki no." Where the closing poem, 848, sings of nights piling up when the lover promised to come and did not, the opening asks whether one must sleep alone again tonight, so that the book's beginning and end answer each other in the grief of nights spent waiting.

First line, "ashihiki no," is a pillow word modifying "yama," mountain. It is the same line that opens 778 through 782, beginning the sequence.
Second line, "yamashita kaze mo," means "the wind down at the mountain's foot as well," with "mo" adding this to the sorrow of sleeping alone.
Third line, "samukeki ni," means "though it is cold," the biting chill heightening the heart's loneliness.
Fourth line, "koyoi mo mata ya," means "again tonight as well," with "ya" an interrogative binding particle, expressing the nights of waiting piling one upon another.
Final line, "waga hitori nen," means "must I sleep alone," concluding in the attributive form of the conjectural "n" in answer to "ya." It shares an ending on sleeping alone with the final line of the next poem, 778, "hitori ka mo nemu."
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Shui Wakashu
Prev Poem: Aki wa waga kokoro no tsuyu ni aranedomo mono nagekashiki koro ni mo aru kana
Next Poem: Ashihiki no yamadori no o no shidario no naganagashi yo o hitori ka mo nemu