Komu yo ni mo haya narinanamu me no mae ni tsurenaki hito o mukashi to omowamu - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

来む世にもはやなりななむ目の前に
つれなき人を昔と思はむ

Roma-ji: Komu yo ni mo haya narinanamu me no mae ni tsurenaki hito o mukashi to omowamu
English Translation: Would that it were now
already the world to come
so the one before me
so cold and so unkind
I could think of as long past
Meaning: I wish the next life would come quickly, so that I could think of the cold one before my eyes as someone from long ago.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems I 520

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poet wishes he could reach the next life and think of the beloved, cold though near at hand, as a matter of a former life long past. Against a Buddhist sense of time, the bold conceit of longing for the next world to escape the pain of love in this one expresses the depth of that suffering.

First line, "Would that it were now": komu yo, the world to come, is the next life after death.
Second line, "already the world to come": nanamu combines na, the irrealis of the perfective nu, with the desiderative particle namu, meaning "I wish it would quickly become." The poem pauses here.
Third line, "so the one before me": me no mae ni, right before my eyes, modifies "the cold one" in the fourth line.
Fourth line, "so cold and so unkind": tsurenaki hito wo means the unfeeling one. The next poem, 521, with "tsure mo naki hito wo," continues this love for a cold beloved.
Fifth line, "I could think of as long past": mukashi to omowamu means "let me think of it as long ago," with mu expressing intention. It is the wish to push the present love into the past, viewed from the distant future of the next life.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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