Ureshisa mo aware mo ika ni kotaemashi furusatobito ni towaremashikaba - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

嬉しさも哀れもいかに答へまし
故郷人に問はれましかば

Roma-ji: Ureshisa mo aware mo ika ni kotaemashi furusatobito ni towaremashikaba
English Translation: Both our happiness
and our sorrow—how would we
have answered, had you,
one from our old home, the capital,
only thought to ask of us?
Meaning: Had someone from our old home in the capital asked after us, how would we have answered with both our joy and our sorrow?
Commentary: Book Nineteen Poems on the Gods 1873

Headnote: "Sent from among the ladies of the Ise Priestess's household when Lord Kintsugu, having visited the Great Shrine as imperial envoy, was returning to the capital."
This is the third poem in the sequence concerning the Great Shrine of Ise, forming an exchange with the next poem. It wonders how they would have answered, with both joy and sorrow, had someone from their old home in the capital asked after them. According to the headnote, it was sent from among the ladies serving the Ise Priestess when Kintsugu, having visited the Great Shrine as imperial envoy, was returning to the capital. Through a counterfactual, it conveys their feelings at not having been asked.
The author is given as "Anonymous"; she was one of the ladies serving the Ise Priestess, but her name is not recorded.
Kintsugu is Fujiwara no Kintsugu, son of Tokudaiji Sanesada, who later became Minister of the Left. The Ise Priestess was an unmarried imperial princess chosen at the start of each reign to serve the Great Shrine of Ise; the word also refers to her residence.

The first line, "ureshisa mo," means "our joy, too."
The second line, "aware mo ika ni," means "and our sorrow, how." Setting "joy" beside "sorrow," it shows a heart where the delight of meeting someone from the capital mingles with the sadness of living far away from it.
The third line, "kotaemashi," means "how we would have answered," using the counterfactual auxiliary "mashi," and the poem pauses here.
In the fourth line, "furusatobito ni," "furusatobito" means someone from one's old home, here the envoy come from the capital. For ladies serving the Priestess, the capital was home.
The last line, "towaremashikaba," means "had we been asked." It forms the counterfactual pattern "mashikaba ... mashi," inverted with the third line. It implies that they were in fact not asked, gently conveying reproach toward the envoy Kintsugu.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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