Yawaraka ni nuru yo mo nakute wakarenuru yoyo no tamakura itsuka wasuren - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

やはらかに寝る夜もなくて別れぬる
夜々の手枕いつか忘れん

Roma-ji: Yawaraka ni nuru yo mo nakute wakarenuru yoyo no tamakura itsuka wasuren
English Translation: Never at our ease,
with never a night of rest, we
always had to part—
those nights of resting on your arm,
when could I forget them?
Meaning: Never at ease, without a single night of restful sleep, we always parted; yet those nights of pillowing on your arm, when could I ever forget them?
Commentary: Book Thirteen Love Poems III 783

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
Those nights of resting on each other's arms, he says, when we never slept at ease and always parted, when could I forget them? Secret meetings never allowed them to sleep together at leisure and always ended in hurried partings, yet for that very reason each night of pillowing on each other's arms is all the harder to forget.
The author, "Fujiwara no Nagatō," was the son of Fujiwara no Tomoyasu and a younger brother of the mother of Michitsuna, author of the Kagerō Diary. He was active in the poetic circle of Retired Emperor Kazan, is said to have been the poetry teacher of Nōin, and is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals of the middle period.
The preceding poem tried to forget by refusing to keep the letters, while this one turns back to the side that cannot forget, asking when it could forget those nights. From "wasurarezu" two poems before, hearts that cannot forget and hearts that try to forget alternate.

First line, "yawaraka ni": "at ease, in comfort."
Second line, "nuru yo mo nakute": "with never a night of sleeping at ease," showing that theirs were hurried, secret meetings.
Third line, "wakarenuru": "nuru" is the attributive of the perfective "nu," "we parted."
Fourth line, "yoyo no tamakura": "yoyo" means night after night, and "tamakura" is sleeping with an arm for a pillow, the memory of each night's meeting.
Fifth line, "itsuka wasuren": "ka" is rhetorical and "n" the attributive of the conjectural "mu," "when could I forget? Never." It forms a reversed picture with "katami to mo seji" in the last line of the preceding poem.
Author: Fujiwara no Nagato
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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