Koishinan koto zo hakanaki watarigawa ause ari to wa kikanu mono yue - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

恋ひ死なんことぞはかなき渡り川
逢ふ瀬ありとは聞かぬものゆゑ

Roma-ji: Koishinan koto zo hakanaki watarigawa ause ari to wa kikanu mono yue
English Translation: To die of my love
would be futile after all:
for in the River of Crossing
that there is a ford for meeting
I have never heard it said
Meaning: How futile it would be to die of love, for I have never heard that in the river the dead must cross there is any ford where lovers meet.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 762

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
Dying of love is futile, he says, for I have never heard of a ford for meeting in the River of Crossing. Even if he dies for love, he has never heard that lovers meet at the Sanzu River the dead must cross, so death would bring nothing, a lament that even dying of love offers no comfort.
The author, "Senior Assistant Governor-General of Dazaifu Shigeie," was the son of Fujiwara no Akisuke, Master of the Left Capital Office. A poet of the Rokujō Fujiwara house who served as Senior Assistant Governor-General of Dazaifu, he was the younger brother of Fujiwara no Kiyosuke.
Poem 759, two before this one, also sings of the River of Crossing; where it says that the tears of one dying of love will become the river's deep current, this poem says there is no ford for meeting in that river, so that the two form a pair. Poem 715 would throw itself into the river of tears hoping for a ford to meet even if not in this world, and this poem cancels that hope. The first line, "koishinan," is the same as in 722, 730 and 759.

First line, "koishinan": "n" is the attributive of "mu" used to soften, "dying of love, as it were." Poems 722, 730 and 759 of this book open with the same line.
Second line, "koto zo hakanaki": "zo" is an emphatic particle binding with the attributive "hakanaki," "how futile it is." The poem pauses here.
Third line, "watarigawa": the Sanzu River, which the dead are said to cross on their way to the underworld. It is the same word as in the third line of 759 of this book.
Fourth line, "ause ari to wa": "ause" is a chance for lovers to meet, said with the shallows of a river in mind, a related word to "kawa" in the third line. It cancels the hope of "ause ari ya to" in the last line of 715.
Fifth line, "kikanu mono yue": "mono yue" is a conjunctive particle of cause, "since I have never heard," turning back by inversion to the second line.
Author: Fujiwara no Shigeie
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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