Kimi kou to ukinuru tama no sayo fukete ika naru tsuma ni musubarenuran - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

君恋ふと浮きぬる魂のさ夜更けて
いかなるつまに結ばれぬらん

Roma-ji: Kimi kou to ukinuru tama no sayo fukete ika naru tsuma ni musubarenuran
English Translation: Longing for you so,
my soul has drifted from me;
now the night grows late,
and to what hem, I wonder,
has it found itself tied fast?
Meaning: My soul, which drifted away from me in my longing for you, now that the night grows late, to what hem of whose robe has it been tied, I wonder?
Commentary: Book Fifteen Love Poems V 924

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
My soul, which drifted away in longing for you, she says, as the night grows late, to what hem has it been tied? Feeling that her soul has left her body for very longing, she wonders late at night on whose robe, on what hem, it has been fastened. With an undertone of anxiety as to whether it has reached her beloved, she conveys the depth of love's brooding by asking where her wandering soul has gone.
The author, "Kojijū of the Grand Empress Dowager's household," was the daughter of Ki no Mitsukiyo, Superintendent of the Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine. She served Emperor Nijō and later Grand Empress Dowager Fujiwara no Masaruko, and was called "Kojijū of the Waiting Evening" for a poem on waiting through the evening for a lover.
It forms a pair with the preceding poem, 923. Where that poem commanded "ukaren tama," "the soul that will drift," to "linger on the hem," this one asks where "ukinuru tama," "the soul that has drifted," has been "tied," so that a man's poem and a woman's poem answer each other in their wish for the wandering soul and its fate.

First line, "kimi kou to": "in my longing for you." It is the same opening as "kimi kouru" in the first line of the next poem, 925.
Second line, "ukinuru tama no": "uki" means to leave the body and wander, and "nuru" is the attributive of the perfective "nu," "my soul that has drifted away." It answers "ukaren tama yo" in the second line of the preceding poem, 923.
Third line, "sayo fukete": "sa" is a prefix, "as the night grows late."
Fourth line, "ika naru tsuma ni": "tsuma" is the hem of a robe, drawing on the custom of tying a wandering soul to the hem of a garment. It answers "tsuma ni todomare" in the last line of the preceding poem.
Fifth line, "musubarenuran": "re" is the continuative of the passive "ru," "nu" the perfective, and "ran" the present conjectural "ramu," "has it been tied, I wonder?"
Author: Kojiju
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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