Nado ya kaku samo kuregataki ōzora zo waga matsu koto wa ari to shirazu ya - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

などやかくさも暮れがたき大空ぞ
我が待つことはありと知らずや

Roma-ji: Nado ya kaku samo kuregataki ōzora zo waga matsu koto wa ari to shirazu ya
English Translation: Why should it be so,
why so slow to darken now,
this wide sky above?
Does it not know there is one
who is waiting for its dusk?
Meaning: Why is the great sky so slow to darken like this? Does it not know there is someone I am waiting for?
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 744

Headnote: "Sent to someone who had said they would come in secret at dusk"
Sent to someone who had said they would come in secret at dusk. Why is the great sky so slow to darken, he says; does it not know that I have something to wait for? Longing for the lover's visit and calling out to the sky that will not darken, he expresses the impatience of a heart waiting for evening.
The author, "His Majesty Retired Emperor Nijō," refers to a poem by Retired Emperor Nijō, the first son of Emperor Go-Shirakawa and the seventy-eighth emperor. He loved poetry and often held poetry gatherings at the palace during his reign, but died at twenty-three.
Poem 738 of this book also sings of a heart waiting for an evening with no promise of a visit. This poem sings of an evening awaiting a promised visit, so that the two form a pair by the presence or absence of a promise.

First line, "nado ya kaku": "nado" is an interrogative adverb and "ya" an interrogative particle, "why like this?"
Second line, "samo kuregataki": "samo" means "so very," "so slow to darken."
Third line, "ōzora zo": "zo" is emphatic, reproaching the great sky that will not darken. The poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "waga matsu koto wa": "that I am waiting." Like "kure zo mataruru" in the last line of 738 of this book, it sings of a heart waiting for dusk.
Fifth line, "ari to shirazu ya": "ya" is a particle of question or rhetorical question, "do you not know it?" calling out to the great sky.
Author: Retired Emperor Nijō
Source: Senzai Wakashu
Prev Poem: Au koto o saritomo to nomi omou kana Fushimi no sato no na o tanomitsutsu
Next Poem: Sode no iro wa hito no tou made nari mo seyo fukaki omoi o kimi shi tanomaba