Yasurawan ōkata no yo wa akenu tomo yami to ka ieru kiri ni komorite

やすらはん大方の夜は明けぬとも
闇とか言へる霧にこもりて

Roma-ji: Yasurawan ōkata no yo wa akenu tomo yami to ka ieru kiri ni komorite
English Translation: Let me linger here:
though the night of all the world
may have come to dawn,
in this mist that one might call
darkness, hidden I will stay.
Meaning: Let me linger. Even if the night has ended for the rest of the world, I will stay hidden in this mist so deep it might be called darkness.
Commentary: Love Poems 588

Headnote: "The morning after, with mist"
The topic pairs the morning after with mist. Even if the world at large has seen the night end, the place is wrapped in a mist so deep it might be called darkness, so the poet resolves to stay hidden in it and not yet leave. The depth of the mist becomes an excuse to put off parting a little longer.
The next poem, 589, also uses yasurawan, let me linger, in its third line, and hesitates over parting with the early winter rain as its excuse, so the two poems form a pair singing the same feeling through mist and through rain.

First line, “yasurawan”: yasurau is to hesitate or linger, and n expresses intention; the poem breaks after the first line.
Second line, “ōkata no yo wa”: ōkata no means of the world at large, the world beyond the place where the two are.
Third line, “akenu tomo”: even if it has dawned; tomo marks a concessive supposition.
Fourth line, “yami to ka ieru”: what one might call darkness, stressing the depth of the mist.
Fifth line, “kiri ni komorite”: shut in by the mist; this returns to the first line in inversion, and answers the mist of the topic.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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