Ikabakari kurushiki mono zo Katsuragi no Kumeji no hashi no naka no taema wa - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

いかばかり苦しきものぞ葛城の
久米路の橋のなかの絶え間は

Roma-ji: Ikabakari kurushiki mono zo Katsuragi no Kumeji no hashi no naka no taema wa
English Translation: How painful it must be,
how hard to bear—like the bridge
at Katsuragi,
the bridge of Kumeji broken
in the middle, our bond cut.
Meaning: How painful it must be, while what lies between us is broken off, like the bridge of Kumeji at Katsuragi that stops in the middle.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 863

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
The poem laments how painful it must be while the bond between two people is broken off, like the bridge of Kumeji at Katsuragi that stops halfway.
The bridge of Kumeji is said to be the stone bridge that the ascetic En no Gyōja ordered the god Hitokotonushi of Mount Katsuragi to build; ashamed of his ugly face, the god worked only by night, and the bridge was never finished. As a bridge broken off midway, it is sung as an image of love whose bond has been cut.
From here to 865 in this book, three poems in a row sing of bridges.

First line, "ikabakari," means "how very much."
Second line, "kurushiki mono zo," means "painful it must be." The poem breaks here, and the fourth and final lines are inverted.
Third line, "Katsuragi no," means "of Mount Katsuragi" in Yamato Province.
Fourth line, "Kumeji no hashi no," means "of the bridge of Kumeji," the legendary stone bridge meant to span Mount Katsuragi. With "Nagara no hashibashira" in the next poem, 864, and "Kisoji no hashi" in 865, it forms a sequence of bridge poems.
Final line, "naka no taema wa," means "the gap in the middle," with "naka" a pivot word joining the middle of the bridge and the bond between lovers. It shares the pairing of "naka" and "tayu," to break off, with the final line of the next poem, 864, "naka ya taenan."
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Shui Wakashu
Prev Poem: Isonokami furinishi koi no kamisabite tataru ni ware wa negi zo kanetsuru
Next Poem: Kagiri naku omoi Nagara no hashibashira omoinagara ni naka ya taenan