Tanomuredo kokoro kawarite kaeriko ba kore zo yagate no wakare naru beki - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

頼むれど心変はりて帰り来ば
これぞやがての別れなるべき

Roma-ji: Tanomuredo kokoro kawarite kaeriko ba kore zo yagate no wakare naru beki
English Translation: I trust you will return,
but if your heart should change
when you come back,
then this would surely be
the parting that lasts forever
Meaning: I rely on your return, but if you come back with your heart changed, then this parting will surely prove to be our final one.
Commentary: Book Seven Parting Poems 483

Headnote: "Composed on the theme of parting when a hundred-poem sequence was presented"
Composed on the topic of parting for the hundred-poem sequence presented to Retired Emperor Sutoku, the so-called Kyūan Hyakushu. I count on your return, the poet says, but if your heart changes while you are away and you come back so, this parting will become the true and final one. Even if the body returns, once the heart has drifted away, that is the real parting, and the poem questions what parting means.
The author, "Master of the Western Capital Akisuke," was the son of Master of Palace Repairs Fujiwara no Akisue. By command of Retired Emperor Sutoku he compiled the Shika Wakashū. He carried on the poetic tradition of the Rokujō Fujiwara house and has a poem in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
This poem and the next, 484, are both parting poems from the Kyūan Hyakushu.

First line, "tanomuredo": "tanomu" in its quadrigrade sense is to rely on, and "do" is concessive, "though I count on your return."
Second line, "kokoro kawarite": "your heart having changed" while away.
Third line, "kaeriko ba": "ko" is the irrealis of "ku," and with "ba" it forms a hypothetical, "if you come back."
Fourth line, "kore zo yagate no": the particle "zo" closes with the attributive "beki" in the last line. "Yagate" means "just as it is," so this parting would turn directly into the last one.
Fifth line, "wakare naru beki": "beki," the attributive of the conjectural "beshi," closes the "zo" of the fourth line, "it must surely be the true parting."
Author: Fujiwara no Akisuke
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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