Hito wa isa waga mi wa sue ni narinureba mata ōsaka o ikaga matsubeki - Kinyo Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

人はいさ我が身は末になりぬれば
またあふさかをいかが待つべき

Roma-ji: Hito wa isa waga mi wa sue ni narinureba mata ōsaka o ikaga matsubeki
English Translation: As for you, who knows,
but I have reached my own end,
and so how could I
wait for the day once more
to meet at Ōsaka
Meaning: I cannot say how it is with you, but my own life is drawing to its end; how then could I wait for the day when we meet again at Ōsaka?
Commentary: Book Six Parting Poems 346

The poet cannot speak for the traveler, but his own years are near their end, so how could he wait for the day of meeting again at the Ōsaka barrier? The poem holds an old man's sorrow at not knowing whether he will live to welcome the traveler home.
Some manuscripts name Fujiwara no Sanetsuna as the author and give the headnote 'Composed when people held a farewell banquet as Tamenaka went down as Governor of Mutsu.' It would then be a poem from the farewell feast for Tachibana no Tamenaka as he left for his province. The Ōsaka barrier was where travelers to the eastern provinces left the capital behind.
Poem 343 in this book likewise laments a self that may not be able to wait and welcome the traveler, and answers this poem.

First line, 'hito wa isa', means as for you, who can say, setting the other aside and turning to the poet's own case.
Second line, 'waga mi wa sue ni', means my own self near its end, sue meaning that the end of life is close. 'Waga mi', my own self, also appears in the second line of poem 343 in this book.
Third line, 'narinureba', means since it has become so, the realis with ba forming a definite condition.
Fourth line, 'mata ōsaka o', is a pivot word in which ausaka means both meeting again and the Ōsaka barrier, left in kana. It also echoes the Ōsaka barrier said to appear in the headnote of the closing poem, 349.
Final line, 'ikaga matsubeki', means how could I wait, a rhetorical question. Like the first line 'machitsukemu' of poem 343 in this book, it sings of waiting.
Source: Kinyo Wakashu
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