Hito shirenu omoi nomi koso wabishikere waga nageki oba ware nomi zo shiru - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

人知れぬ思ひのみこそわびしけれ
わが嘆きをば我のみぞ知る

Roma-ji: Hito shirenu omoi nomi koso wabishikere waga nageki oba ware nomi zo shiru
English Translation: Nothing is so hard
as a love that no one knows;
the sighs I heave,
these sorrows that are mine,
I alone know them.
Meaning: Nothing is as painful as a love no one knows of; my grief is something I alone know.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 606

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poet says that nothing is more painful than a love no one knows of, and that he alone knows his own grief. Without metaphor or natural imagery, the feeling is stated directly, powerfully expressing the loneliness of a hidden love that cannot be confided to anyone. It closes the three poems by Tsurayuki in this book.
Ki no Tsurayuki was a poet of the early Heian period, the son of Ki no Mochiyuki. He was the leading compiler of the Kokinshū and wrote its Japanese preface. He served as Governor of Tosa and is also known as the author of the Tosa Diary. He is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.

First line, "hito shirenu": "unknown to others," modifying omoi in the second line. Like "hito ni shirarenu" in 565 of this book, it refers to a hidden love.
Second line, "omoi nomi koso": nomi is restrictive, "it is precisely a hidden love that ..." The binding particle koso pairs with kere in the third line.
Third line, "wabishikere": wabishi means painful or desolate, and kere is the perfective form resolving koso. The poem breaks here.
Fourth line, "waga nageki oba": nageki is the grief or sighing of love. Oba emphasizes the object. The line has eight syllables, one more than the norm.
Fifth line, "ware nomi zo shiru": the binding particle zo is resolved by the attributive shiru. By repeating nomi in "omoi nomi" in the second line and "ware nomi" in the last, the loneliness is made all the more striking.
Author: Ki no Tsurayuki
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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