Imo to nete okiyuku asa no michi yori mo nakanaka mono no omowashiki kana - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

妹と寝て起きゆく朝の道よりも
なかなか物の思はしきかな

Roma-ji: Imo to nete okiyuku asa no michi yori mo nakanaka mono no omowashiki kana
English Translation: More than on the road
that I take at morning, risen
from my love's side,
all the more, on the contrary,
am I lost in brooding thought
Meaning: Even more than on the road home in the morning after rising from my beloved's side, I find myself lost in brooding thoughts.
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 963

Headnote: "Sent in the morning after I had lain together with Fujiwara no Sanekata in his night-duty quarters and gone home at dawn"
He spent the night with his close friend Fujiwara no Sanekata in Sanekata's night-duty quarters and sent this poem the morning after returning home at dawn. More than on the road home in the morning after rising from my beloved, I am lost in brooding thought, he says. Invoking the pain of a lovers' morning parting, he says that the lingering regret of parting from his friend is greater still, expressing close friendship in the form of a love poem.
The author, "Fujiwara no Michinobu, Lord," was a son of Chancellor Fujiwara no Tamemitsu. He was adopted by Fujiwara no Kaneie and rose to middle captain of the Left Palace Guards, but died young at twenty-three. He is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals of the Middle Ages, and a poem of his is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
Following the preceding poem, 962, an exchange between a man and a woman about a gate, this poem likens friendship between men to the parting of lovers in the morning.

First line, "imo to nete": "imo" is a word with which a man fondly calls his wife or lover, "having slept with my beloved."
Second line, "okiyuku asa no": "of the morning when I rise and go," evoking the lovers' morning parting.
Third line, "michi yori mo": "yori mo" expresses comparison, "more than on the road home."
Fourth line, "nakanaka mono no": "nakanaka" means rather, on the contrary.
Fifth line, "omowashiki kana": "omowashi" is an adjective meaning given to brooding, and "kana" exclamatory, "how lost I am in thought."
Author: Fujiwara no Michinobu
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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