Warinashi ya itsu o omoi no hate ni shite tsukihi o okuru waga mi naruran

わりなしやいつを思ひの果てにして
月日を送る我が身なるらん

Roma-ji: Warinashi ya itsu o omoi no hate ni shite tsukihi o okuru waga mi naruran
English Translation: How hopeless it is!
Taking which day as the end
of all my brooding,
am I sending off the months
and the days of my life so?
Meaning: How hopeless it is! Taking what day, I wonder, as the end of my brooding do I let the months and days slip by?
Commentary: Miscellaneous Poems 1319

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "One hundred and ten love poems"
How hopeless, the poet says; taking what day as the end of his brooding does he let the months and days go by?
Amid endless brooding over love, only time passes, and the poem sings of that emptiness. Like 1244 and 1282, it opens with warinashi, lamenting love's helplessness.

First line, “warinashi ya”: how hopeless, a lament breaking after the first line.
Second line, “itsu o omoi no”: which day, of brooding.
Third line, “hate ni shite”: as its end.
Fourth line, “tsukihi o okuru”: spending the months and days.
Fifth line, “waga mi naruran”: ran conjectures, "am I such a one?"
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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