Aimin to tanomureba koso kurehatori ayashi ya ikaga tachikaerubeki - Kinyo Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

逢ひ見むと頼むればこそくれはとり
あやしやいかがたち帰るべき

Roma-ji: Aimin to tanomureba koso kurehatori ayashi ya ikaga tachikaerubeki
English Translation: Because you led me
to hope that we would meet, I came,
like Kureha's weave,
how strange it is, how could I
just turn round and go home
Meaning: It was only because you led me to hope we would meet that I came; how strange it is, how could I simply turn and go home?
Commentary: Book Seven Love Poems I 367

The poet came only because the beloved led him to expect a meeting, and he protests that he cannot accept going home without one. Stringing together words tied to weaving, kurehatori, aya and tatsu, the poem voices its complaint with wit.
Some manuscripts name Minamoto no Akikuni as the author and give the headnote 'Composed at the house of Middle Counselor Lord Toshitada on the sentiment of love in which one is led to hope but does not meet.' It would then be a poem on that topic composed at the house of Fujiwara no Toshitada.

First line, 'aimin to', means that we would meet.
Second line, 'tanomureba koso', means precisely because you led me to hope, the realis of tanomu, to make someone hope, with ba and the particle koso.
Third line, 'kurehatori', is a pillow word for aya, figured cloth, leading into ayashi in the fourth line.
Fourth line, 'ayashi ya ikaga', means how strange, how could I, aya echoing figured cloth in keeping with kurehatori in the third line. 'Ayashiki' in poem 364 in this book likewise echoes aya.
Final line, 'tachikaerubeki', is a pivot word in which tachi means both tachi, cutting cloth, and tachi, rising to go back, left in kana. Taking up ikaga in the fourth line, it forms a rhetorical question meaning he surely cannot go back.
Source: Kinyo Wakashu
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