Yukusue o matsu beki mi koso oi ni kere wakare wa michi no tōki nomi ka wa - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

行く末を待つべき身こそ老いにけれ
別れは道の遠きのみかは

Roma-ji: Yukusue o matsu beki mi koso oi ni kere wakare wa michi no tōki nomi ka wa
English Translation: I, who must await
the days that lie ahead,
have grown old indeed:
is parting only a matter
of the road's great length?
Meaning: I who must wait for the days to come have grown old. Is the pain of parting only that the road is long? No, it is more than that.
Commentary: Book Seven Parting Poems 480

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed on the theme of parting when a hundred-poem sequence was presented in the reign of Emperor Horikawa"
A parting poem from the Horikawa Hyakushu. I who must wait for the days ahead, for the traveler's return, have grown old, the poet says; is parting painful only because the road is long? Besides the pain of distance, an old man fears he may not live until the day of reunion, and that is his lament.
The author, "Former Middle Counselor Masafusa," was the son of Ōe no Narihira. Renowned as a scholar, he served as Provisional Middle Counselor and Provisional Governor-General of Dazaifu. He has a poem in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
Following the preceding poem, it is another parting poem from the Horikawa Hyakushu, the second in the sequence.

First line, "yukusue o": "yukusue" is the future, the days ahead of waiting for the traveler's return.
Second line, "matsu beki mi koso": the emphatic "koso" closes with the perfective form "kere" in the third line.
Third line, "oi ni kere": "ni" is the continuative of the perfective "nu," and "kere" the perfective form of the exclamatory "keri," "I have grown old indeed." The poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "wakare wa michi no": "parting is a matter of the road's." Taking up "wakareji" in the preceding poem, it sees parting as the length of the road.
Fifth line, "tōki nomi ka wa": the rhetorical "ka wa," "is it only that the road is far? Not so," hinting that age makes reunion uncertain.
Author: Oe no Masafusa
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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