Tanometsutsu wakareshi hito o matsu hodo ni toshi sae semete urameshiki kana - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

頼めつつ別れし人を待つほどに
年さへせめて恨めしきかな

Roma-ji: Tanometsutsu wakareshi hito o matsu hodo ni toshi sae semete urameshiki kana
English Translation: While I wait for one
who parted from me with
promises to trust,
even the year, as it ends,
grows bitter to me, I find.
Meaning: As I wait for the one who left me with promises to rely on, even the year, pressing to its close, has become bitterly hateful to me.
Commentary: Book Nineteen Miscellaneous Love Poems 1273

Headnote: "Composed at the end of the year for one who had been waiting for someone"
The poet says that while waiting for one who left with promises to rely on, even the year has become bitterly hateful. The headnote shows it was composed at the year's end in the person of one who had been waiting for someone. Lamenting that the year itself runs out while one goes on waiting for a person who promised to return, it sings of the pain of waiting in love, finding hateful not only the one who does not come but also the passing year.
This is the closing poem of the book. Where the opening poem, 1210, sang of a love begun long ago, this closing poem sings of waiting in vain at the year's end for one who does not come, so a book that opened with the beginning of love closes with the resentment of waiting.
The author, Ki no Tsurayuki, was the leading compiler of the Kokinshū, wrote its kana preface and the Tosa Diary. He is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "tanometsutsu," means "making me trust again and again," with "tanomu" in its lower bigrade form meaning to make someone rely on a promise and "tsutsu" expressing repetition.
Second line, "wakareshi hito o," means "the one who parted," with "shi" the attributive form of the past auxiliary "ki."
Third line, "matsu hodo ni," means "while I wait."
Fourth line, "toshi sae semete," means "even the year, bitterly," with "sae" adding the year to the one who does not come. "Semete" means "bitterly," also echoing the year pressing to its close. It answers the fourth line of the opening poem, 1210, "hisashiki yo yori," in singing of the years that pass in love.
Final line, "urameshiki kana," means "how hateful," with "kana" exclamatory.
Author: Ki no Tsurayuki
Source: Shui Wakashu
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