Au koto no nageki no moto o tazunureba hitorine yori zo oihajimekeru - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

逢ふことのなげきの本を尋ぬれば
独り寝よりぞ生ひはじめける

Roma-ji: Au koto no nageki no moto o tazunureba hitorine yori zo oihajimekeru
English Translation: When I seek the root
of this tree of grieving
that we cannot meet,
it was from sleeping alone
that it first began to grow.
Meaning: When I trace the root of this tree of grief at not meeting you, I find it first began to grow from my nights of sleeping alone.
Commentary: Book Fifteen Love Poems V 952

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
The poem says that when I trace the root of my grief at not meeting, I find it began to grow from sleeping alone. Through the wit of treating grief as a tree whose root leads back to solitary sleep, it sings of the loneliness of nights without the beloved.
The author, "Fujiwara no Aritoki", was a Heian-period official whose career is not known in detail.

First line, "au koto no," means "of meeting."
Second line, "nageki no moto o," means "the root of grief," with "nageki" a pivot word joining "nageki," grief, and the "ki," tree, of "nageki," firewood. "Moto," the base of a tree, forms an associated word for "ki" together with "oi," growing, in the final line. It shares the same pivot word with the first line of 970 in this book, "nageki koru."
Third line, "tazunureba," means "when I search."
Fourth line, "hitorine yori zo," means "from sleeping alone," with the binding particle "zo" forming a kakari-musubi with the final line.
Final line, "oihajimekeru," means "it began to grow," concluding with "keru," the attributive of the exclamatory "keri," in answer to "zo" in the fourth line.
Author: Fujiwara no Aritoki
Source: Shui Wakashu
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