Miyako nite obotsukanasa o narawazu wa tabine o ikani omoiyaramashi - Shika Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

都にておぼつかなさをならはずは
旅寝をいかに思ひやらまし

Roma-ji: Miyako nite obotsukanasa o narawazu wa tabine o ikani omoiyaramashi
English Translation: In the capital
had I not grown used to this
anxious not-knowing,
how could I ever picture
your nights of sleeping on the road?
Meaning: Had I not already grown used, here in the capital, to the uneasy feeling of not knowing how you fare, how could I ever imagine what it is like for you to sleep out on the road?
Commentary: Book Six Parting Poems 172

A poem by one who stays behind in the capital, thinking of a traveler. Because the poet has already grown used to worrying about the absent one, the hardships of sleeping on the road can be imagined. Cast as a counterfactual, it expresses the anxious heart of the one who sees others off from the reverse side.
Placed at the head of the book of parting poems, it opens the book not with the traveler but with the heart of the one left behind.

First line, "miyako nite" (in the capital), shows that the poet is the one remaining. Beginning with "Michinoku" in the next poem, 173, the book continues with poems seeing people off to distant provinces, and this "capital" is their starting point.
Second line, "obotsukanasa o" (this anxious not-knowing), names the unease of not knowing how another fares. Set beside "hakanaku mo" (how fleeting) in 186 at the end of the book, the book of partings opens with unease and closes with transience.
Third line, "narawazu wa," adds the negative "zu" and the particle "wa" to "narau" (to grow used to), forming the condition "had I not grown used to it."
Fourth line, "tabine o ikani": "tabine" is sleeping while traveling, and "ikani" (how) governs the final line.
Final line, "omoiyaramashi": the counterfactual auxiliary "mashi" answers "zu wa" in the third line, giving the sense "how could I possibly imagine it?"
Source: Shika Wakashu
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