Itsuwari to omou mono kara imasara ni ta ga makoto o ka ware wa tanomamu - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

偽りと思ふものから今さらに
誰がまことをか我は頼まむ

Roma-ji: Itsuwari to omou mono kara imasara ni ta ga makoto o ka ware wa tanomamu
English Translation: Though I think them lies,
your words, even as I do,
now, after all this,
whose sincerity instead
could I ever rely on?
Meaning: I know your words are lies, and yet, after all this time, whose sincerity could I trust instead?
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 713

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
Knowing the lover's words are false, yet having no one else to rely on at this late stage, the speaker voices the sorrow of having to trust what she knows to be lies. It is a poem of resignation that gazes at the reality of having to live amid falsehood.
It forms a pair with the preceding poem, 712, both beginning with the word "itsuwari" (falsehood); where that poem dreams of a hypothetical world without lies, this one sings of resignation within the real one.

The first line, "itsuwari to," means "that your words are lies," taking up "itsuwari no" in the first line of the preceding poem.
The second line, "omou mono kara," means "though I think so," "mono kara" being a concessive particle.
The third line, "imasara ni," is an adverb meaning "now, at this late stage," hinting at a long relationship.
The fourth line, "ta ga makoto o ka," means "whose sincerity," with the particle "ka" forming a kakari-musubi with "mu" in the last line.
The final line, "ware wa tanomamu," means "should I rely on?", closing with the attributive form of the conjectural "mu" in answer to the "ka" of the fourth line and carrying a rhetorical sense.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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