Koishiki ni inochi o kauru mono naraba shini wa yasuku zo arubekarikeru - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

恋しきに命を替ふるものならば
死にはやすくぞあるべかりける

Roma-ji: Koishiki ni inochi o kauru mono naraba shini wa yasuku zo arubekarikeru
English Translation: If my very life
could be traded for this longing
and bring it to an end
then death would surely
have been an easy thing
Meaning: If I could give up my life in exchange for this longing, dying would have been an easy thing.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems I 517

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poet laments that he would gladly trade his life for release from longing, but even that is not possible. It paradoxically expresses the depth of love's suffering, in which one is not even permitted to end the pain by death. Together with the next poem, 518, it forms a pair of poems linking love and death.

First line, "If my very life": koishiki ni, for longing, presents longing as that for which life might be exchanged.
Second line, "could be traded for this longing": inochi wo kauru means to give one's life in exchange.
Third line, "and bring it to an end": mono naraba means "if it were possible," expressing a supposition.
Fourth line, "then death would surely": shini wa yasuku zo means dying would be easy, and zo forms a kakari-musubi with keru at the end.
Fifth line, "have been an easy thing": arubekarikeru means "should have been," carrying the lament that in reality it is not so.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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