Wasurenaba ikeramu mono ka to omoishi ni sore mo kanawanu kono yo narikeri - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

忘れなば生けらむものかと思ひしに
それもかなはぬこの世なりけり

Roma-ji: Wasurenaba ikeramu mono ka to omoishi ni sore mo kanawanu kono yo narikeri
English Translation: "If you forget me,
how could I go on living?"
so I thought, and yet
even that is not allowed
in this world, as now I learn.
Meaning: I thought that if you forgot me I could not possibly go on living, yet this is a world where even that is denied me.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 1296

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the sixth poem of the sequence on love being forgotten. I thought I could not live if you forgot me, the speaker says, but this is a world where even dying is denied. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Taifu of Inpumon'in," was a daughter of Fujiwara no Nobunari and a lady-in-waiting to Inpumon'in, Princess Ryōshi, daughter of Emperor Go-Shirakawa.

The first line, "wasurenaba," is conditional: "if you should forget me." Taking up "the one who is forgetting me" in the preceding poem, it shows that being forgotten has at last become real.
In the second line, "ikeramu mono ka to," "mono ka" is rhetorical: "could I go on living? Surely not."
The third line, "omoishi ni," is concessive: "so I thought, and yet."
The fourth line, "sore mo kanawanu," means "even that is not granted." "That" refers to dying because one cannot live.
In the last line, "kono yo narikeri," "keri" marks realization. The poem closes in grief at the realization that one cannot even die of love, but must go on living in pain.
Author: Inpumon-in no Taifu
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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