Yuku kimi o todome mahoshiku omou kana ware mo koishiki miyako naredomo - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

行く君を留めまほしく思ふかな
我も恋しき都なれども

Roma-ji: Yuku kimi o todome mahoshiku omou kana ware mo koishiki miyako naredomo
English Translation: You who are going,
how I wish that I could keep you
from setting out,
though to me as well the capital
is a place for which I long
Meaning: How I wish I could keep you from leaving, though the capital is a place that I too long for.
Commentary: Book Seven Parting Poems 485

Headnote: "Sent when Imperial Adviser Suketada, his term as Senior Assistant Governor-General over, was going up to the capital, while I was Governor of Chikuzen"
Sent to Imperial Adviser Minamoto no Suketada when, his term as Senior Assistant Governor-General of Dazaifu over, he went up to the capital while the poet was in Tsukushi as Governor of Chikuzen. I wish I could keep you from leaving, the poet says, though the capital is a place I too long for. Though he too yearns for the capital, he must see off someone he grew close to in Tsukushi, and he voices that loneliness plainly as a wish to hold him back.
The author, "Fujiwara no Tsunehira," was the son of Fujiwara no Kinnari. A provincial governor who served as Governor of Chikuzen among other posts, he is known as one of the Six Poets of Waka.
The poems from the opening of the book saw off people going down from the capital to Tsukushi, but this poem and the next, 486, are an exchange in which one remaining in Tsukushi sees off someone returning to the capital, reversing the positions of those who send and those who are sent.

First line, "yuku kimi o": "you who are going" back to the capital.
Second line, "todome mahoshiku": "mahoshiku" is the continuative of the desiderative "mahoshi," "I wish to keep you."
Third line, "omou kana": the exclamatory "kana," and the poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "ware mo koishiki": "mo" means "I too, like you," showing that the poet also longs for the capital. The next poem, 486, takes up this line in reply with "kimi dani kouru."
Fifth line, "miyako naredomo": the concessive "domo," "though it is the capital I long for," in inverted relation to the upper verse.
Author: Fujiwara no Tsunehira
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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