Amanogawa wakare ni mune no kogarureba kaesa no fune wa kaji mo torarezu - Kinyo Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

天の川別れに胸のこがるれば
帰さの舟は楫もとられず

Roma-ji: Amanogawa wakare ni mune no kogarureba kaesa no fune wa kaji mo torarezu
English Translation: At the parting on
the River of Heaven, hearts
burn so, and are rowed,
that on the boat going home
no hand can take the oar
Meaning: Parting on the River of Heaven, their hearts burn with such longing that on the boat home no one can even take up the oar.
Commentary: Book Three Autumn Poems 162

When the two stars who met on the River of Heaven must part, their hearts burn so painfully that no one can take up the oar to row the boat home. The grief of parting is expressed through a boat that will not move.
Poems 166 and 167 in this book also sing of the River of Heaven on the way home, so that poems on the homeward path of parting follow one another.
From poem 158 through poem 167 in this book come poems on Tanabata, singing of the yearly meeting of the Herdsman and the Weaver Maid, the custom of lending robes to the Weaver, and the tears of parting at dawn.

First line, 'amanogawa', is the river separating the Herdsman and the Weaver Maid, the stage of Tanabata poems.
Second line, 'wakare ni mune no', means at parting, the heart.
Third line, 'kogarureba', is a pivot word in which kogaru is both kogaru, for the heart to burn, and kogaru, for a boat to be rowed, linking as an associated word of the boat to the lower half.
Fourth line, 'kaesa no fune wa', uses kaesa, the way home, for the boat in which the Herdsman returns.
Final line, 'kaji mo torarezu', uses re, the potential ru: one cannot even take the oar. Kaji, the oar, is an associated word of the boat.
Source: Kinyo Wakashu
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