Omou ni wa shinoburu koto zo makenikeru au ni shi kaeba sa mo araba are - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

思ふには忍ぶることぞ負けにける
逢ふにし換へばさもあらばあれ

Roma-ji: Omou ni wa shinoburu koto zo makenikeru au ni shi kaeba sa mo araba are
English Translation: To love's yearning heart
the will to hide it in secret
has lost the battle;
if it's the price of our meeting,
then let come what may come
Meaning: My will to keep my love hidden has lost to the yearning itself. If it is the price of meeting you, let whatever may happen, happen.
Commentary: Book Thirteen Love Poems III 1151

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the third poem of the sequence on the early days of a love affair. The will to keep love hidden has lost to love's yearning, and if it is the price of meeting, let whatever may happen, happen. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Narihira Ason," is Ariwara no Narihira. A son of Prince Abo, himself a son of Emperor Heizei, he is counted among the Six Poetic Immortals and the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals, and has long been regarded as the hero of The Tales of Ise.
In section 65 of The Tales of Ise the poem appears as the words of a man who keeps visiting a woman favored by the emperor, spoken to the woman when she tries to stop him for fear of his ruin. It also shares its upper verse with an anonymous poem in Love Poems I of the Kokinshū: "To love's yearning heart / the will to hide it in secret / has lost the battle, / though I had thought I would never / let it show in my face."

The first line, "omou ni wa," means "to the heart that yearns." It shares the verb "omou" with "omoi wasuren" in the preceding poem, moving from a heart vowing never to forget to a love that cannot be held back.
The second line, "shinoburu koto zo," means "the will to hide in secret." The emphatic particle "zo" forms a kakari-musubi with "keru" in the third line.
The third line, "makenikeru," means "has lost," ending in the attributive "keru" as the close of "zo," with a pause after the third line. It sets yearning against secrecy and declares that yearning has won.
The fourth line, "au ni shi kaeba," means "if in exchange for meeting." The emphatic particle "shi" strengthens a heart that values meeting above all else. The next poem quotes this line exactly.
The last line, "sa mo araba are," means "let it be as it may." It closes with a resolve that cares nothing for ruin, and together with "inochi to mo gana" of the opening poem it shows a heart ready to throw away life for love's meeting.
Author: Ariwara no Narihira
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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