Tanabata no ama no kawara no iwamakura kawashi mo hatezu akenu kono yo wa - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

七夕の天の河原の岩枕
交はしも果てず明けぬこの夜は

Roma-ji: Tanabata no ama no kawara no iwamakura kawashi mo hatezu akenu kono yo wa
English Translation: On the stone pillow
by the River of Heaven,
the Weaver Maid's,
before they'd shared it fully
this night has turned to dawn
Meaning: Before the Weaver Maid and her lover could fully share their pillow of stone on the banks of the River of Heaven, this night has already given way to dawn.
Commentary: Book Four Autumn Poems I 239

Headnote: "Composed on the feeling of Tanabata"
Composed on the feeling of "Tanabata." The Weaver Maid and the Herdsman lie together on the banks of the River of Heaven with a stone for a pillow, but before they can fully share it the one night has turned to dawn. The lament that the meeting granted once a year ends so quickly is voiced strongly in the inverted final line.
The author, "Minamoto no Toshiyori Ason," was the son of Major Counselor Minamoto no Tsunenobu. The central poet of Emperor Horikawa's poetry circle, he compiled the Kin'yō Wakashū at the command of Retired Emperor Shirakawa and wrote the treatise Toshiyori Zuinō. A poem of his is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
Taking up the pillow of the night of meeting in the preceding poem, 238, this poem speaks of a "stone pillow" and depicts that night as it gives way to dawn. Here the Tanabata sequence moves on to daybreak.

First line, "tanabata no": "the Weaver Maid's."
Second line, "ama no kawara no": "on the banks of the River of Heaven," the place of their meeting. "Ama no gawa" in 241 and "ama no kawase" in 288 of this book also speak of the River of Heaven.
Third line, "iwamakura": a stone used as a pillow, a bed for sleeping in the open. It takes up the pillow from "makura ni chiri no" in the preceding poem, 238.
Fourth line, "kawashi mo hatezu": "kawasu" means to share a pillow, to lie together, and "hatezu" means "before it is done."
Fifth line, "akenu kono yo wa": "nu" is perfective, "it has dawned." Placing the subject, "this night," at the very end in inversion deepens the lament over the brevity of the meeting.
Author: Minamoto no Toshiyori
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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