Kure ni tomo chigirite tare ka kaeruran omoitaetaru akebono no sora - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

暮れにとも契りて誰か帰るらん
思ひ絶えたる曙の空

Roma-ji: Kure ni tomo chigirite tare ka kaeruran omoitaetaru akebono no sora
English Translation: Pledging "by this dusk,"
who is it, I wonder, now
who is going home?
The sky that breaks at dawn upon
one who has given up love
Meaning: Who could it be, I wonder, going home with a promise to come again at dusk? For me there is only the dawn sky, and a heart that has given up.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 749

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
Who is it, he asks, who goes home with a promise of "again at dusk"? Only the dawn sky, for one who has given up hope. Others who part from their lovers at dawn go home promising to return in the evening, but he has no such promise and can only gaze at the dawn sky with hope abandoned, a lament of lonely love.
The author, "Fujiwara no Ietaka," was the son of Provisional Middle Counselor Fujiwara no Mitsutaka. He studied poetry under Fujiwara no Shunzei and later became one of the compilers of the Shin Kokin Wakashū. He has a poem in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
Where 746 sang of the sky at dusk, this poem sings of the sky at dawn, so that evening and daybreak form a pair. The closing noun "sora" echoes "kure no sora kana" in the last line of 746, and "omoitae" echoes 736 and 737.

First line, "kure ni tomo": "at dusk, again," quoting the words of a promise to meet once more.
Second line, "chigirite tare ka": "ka" is an interrogative particle binding with "ran" in the third line, "who, having promised."
Third line, "kaeruran": "ran" is the attributive of the auxiliary of present conjecture, concluding the "ka" of the second line, "is going home?" The poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "omoitaetaru": "having given up love," a heart that has lost its bond with the beloved and abandoned hope. It echoes "omoitaename" in the last line of 736 and "omoi mo taenamashi" in the upper verse of 737.
Fifth line, "akebono no sora": the sky at daybreak, ending on a noun. It forms a pair with "kure no sora kana" in the last line of 746, as dawn to dusk.
Author: Fujiwara no Ietaka
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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