Omoikane koyuru sekiji ni yo o fukami yakoe no tori ni ne o zo soetsuru - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

思ひかね越ゆる関路に夜を深み
八声の鳥に音をぞ添へつる

Roma-ji: Omoikane koyuru sekiji ni yo o fukami yakoe no tori ni ne o zo soetsuru
English Translation: Unable to bear it,
I cross the barrier road
while the night is deep,
and to the cock's many cries
I add the sound of my own weeping
Meaning: Unable to bear my longing, I came to the barrier road, but the night was still deep, and to the cock's many cries before the dawn I added the sound of my own weeping.
Commentary: Book Fifteen Love Poems V 948

Headnote: "Composed on the topic 'love separated by a barrier road'"
Composed on the topic "love separated by a barrier road." Unable to bear my longing, he says, on the barrier road I cross, the night being deep, I added my weeping to the cock's many cries. On the road over the barrier as he hurries toward his beloved, the night is still deep and the gate not yet open, and to the cries of the cock heralding the dawn again and again he joins the sound of his own weeping. It recalls the Chinese story of the Hangu Pass, where a retainer of Lord Mengchang imitated a cock's crow to have the gate opened, overlaying the frustration of being unable to pass the barrier with the grief of love.
The author, "Former Middle Counselor Masayori," is Minamoto no Masayori. The son of Provisional Middle Counselor Minamoto no Masakane, he rose to Provisional Middle Counselor.
Poem 936 of this book is on the topic "love separated by a sea road" and has a dream phantom travel to a lover across the sea, while this poem laments crossing a barrier road in person, so that separation by sea and by barrier form a pair. This poem's "ne o zo soetsuru" also shares the image of weeping aloud with "ne o nakeba" in 905 and "ne ni nakite" in 906.

First line, "omoikane": "kane" is the continuative of "kanu," "to be unable," "unable to bear my longing."
Second line, "koyuru sekiji ni": "sekiji" is a road with a barrier on it, taking up the "barrier road" of the topic. It pairs with "namiji o wakete" in the fourth line of 936 of this book, both singing of a road that separates.
Third line, "yo o fukami": a noun with "o" and the stem of an adjective with "mi" express cause, "because the night is deep." It implies that the barrier has not yet opened.
Fourth line, "yakoe no tori ni": "yakoe no tori," "the bird of eight cries," is the cock that crows again and again before dawn. It recalls the story of the cock's crow at the Hangu Pass.
Fifth line, "ne o zo soetsuru": "ne" is the sound of weeping, and the emphatic "zo" closes with "tsuru," the attributive of the perfective "tsu," "I added my weeping to the cock's cries." Like "ne o nakeba" in the first line of 905 of this book, it sings of weeping aloud.
Author: Minamoto no Masayori
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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