Wakaru to mo naruru omoi ya kasanemashi suginishi kata no koyoi nariseba

別るとも馴るる思ひや重ねまし
過ぎにし方の今宵なりせば

Roma-ji: Wakaru to mo naruru omoi ya kasanemashi suginishi kata no koyoi nariseba
English Translation: Though we were to part,
I would have piled up feelings
of growing close to you—
if only this night of ours
had been one in years gone by.
Meaning: Even had we parted, I could have piled up the feelings of growing close to you, if only tonight had come long ago.
Commentary: Miscellaneous Poems 1093

Headnote: "The morning after I returned from meeting for the first time someone I had heard of for many years"
Composed the morning after Saigyō first met someone whose name he had heard for years. Had tonight's meeting taken place long ago, he says, even though they parted he could have built up layer upon layer of fond familiarity, regretting how late they met.
Through a counterfactual, the poem expresses at once the joy of a first meeting and the regret of not having met sooner, full of respect for a long-admired person and feeling for a bond at last made.

First line, “wakaru to mo”: to mo is a concessive supposition, "even if we part."
Second line, “naruru omoi ya”: ya questions, answered by the attributive mashi in the third line.
Third line, “kasanemashi”: mashi is counterfactual, "I would have piled them up"; the poem breaks here.
Fourth line, “suginishi kata no”: of times gone by.
Fifth line, “koyoi nariseba”: seba is the counterfactual condition, "had tonight been then," the inversion giving the supposition at the end.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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