Koishinan onaji ukina o ika ni shite au ni kaetsu to hito ni iwaren - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

恋ひ死なん同じ憂き名をいかにして
逢ふにかへつと人に言はれん

Roma-ji: Koishinan onaji ukina o ika ni shite au ni kaetsu to hito ni iwaren
English Translation: I shall die of love;
since the rumor will be the same,
somehow let it be
that people say of me,
"he traded his life to meet her."
Meaning: I shall surely die of love. Since the rumors will be the same either way, somehow I would have people say that I gave my life in exchange for meeting her.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 1144

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the second poem of the sequence in which one-sided love comes to dwell on one's own self and life. Since dying of love will bring the same rumor either way, the speaker would somehow have it said that he traded his life for a meeting. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Provisional Middle Counselor Nagakata," is Fujiwara no Nagakata. The son of Provisional Middle Counselor Fujiwara no Akinaga, he rose to provisional middle counselor.

The first line, "koishinan," means "I shall die of love," with "nan" the perfective "nu" joined to the conjectural "mu." The poem breaks after the first line, moving from the self-loathing of the preceding poem to a premonition of death.
The second line, "onaji ukina o," means "the rumor being the same anyway," since dying of love would spread rumor all the same.
The third line, "ika ni shite," means "somehow."
The fourth line, "au ni kaetsu to," means "that I traded my life for meeting," with "tsu" marking completion. Poem 1146 in this book also uses "kau," to trade, in "mi o ya kaeten," trading oneself for love.
The last line, "hito ni iwaren," means "I would have people say," with "n" expressing intention or wish. If the rumor is to spread either way, he would rather be said to have died after meeting than without meeting.
Author: Fujiwara no Nagakata
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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