Ware mo mata haru to tomo ni ya kaeramashi asu bakari o ba koko ni kurashite - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

我もまた春とともにや帰らまし
明日ばかりをばここに暮らして

Roma-ji: Ware mo mata haru to tomo ni ya kaeramashi asu bakari o ba koko ni kurashite
English Translation: Shall I too go back
together with the spring
as it departs,
after spending just tomorrow
here in this place?
Meaning: Shall I too go back with the departing spring, after spending just one more day, tomorrow, here?
Commentary: Book Two Spring Poems II 121

Headnote: "Composed by the Emperor when, toward the end of the Third Month, on the night of an imperial visit to Shirakawa Palace to avoid an inauspicious direction, his courtiers presented poems on the topic 'Two Days of Spring Remain'"
Toward the end of the Third Month, on the night Emperor Nijō visited Shirakawa Palace to avoid an inauspicious direction, his courtiers composed poems on the topic "Two Days of Spring Remain," and the Emperor himself composed this one. With only two days of spring left, he wonders whether he too should go back with the spring, after spending just one more day, tomorrow, here at Shirakawa. Overlaying the day spring departs with the day he returns to the palace, he expresses regret for the passing spring as a wish to linger where he is. Poems on late spring begin here.
The author, "Poem by Retired Emperor Nijō," is Emperor Nijō, eldest son of Emperor Go-Shirakawa, who came to the throne on his father's abdication but fell ill while reigning and died young after abdicating.
From this poem to the end of the book, 135, comes a sequence lamenting the end of spring and the last day of the Third Month.

First line, "ware mo mata": "mata," too, sets the poet beside the spring: "I too, like the spring."
Second line, "haru to tomo ni ya": the interrogative "ya" links with "mashi" in the third line.
Third line, "kaeramashi": "mashi" expresses hesitant intention, "shall I go back," overlaying his return to the palace with the departing spring. The poem pauses here. "Kaeru nari" in the next poem, 122, and "kaeramashi ya wa" in 126 of this book also speak of spring's "going back."
Fourth line, "asu bakari o ba": the restrictive "bakari" gives "tomorrow at least," picking up "two days remain" in the headnote to mean the first of those days.
Fifth line, "koko ni kurashite": "spending the day here," inverted with the third line, showing his wish to pass tomorrow at Shirakawa before going back.
Author: Retired Emperor Nijō
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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