Shikari tote somukarenaku ni koto shi areba mazu nagekarenu ana u yo no naka - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

しかりとて背かれなくに事しあれば
まづ嘆かれぬあな憂世の中

Roma-ji: Shikari tote somukarenaku ni koto shi areba mazu nagekarenu ana u yo no naka
English Translation: Even so, I know
I cannot turn my back on it;
whenever things occur
the first thing is to lament:
ah, how bitter is this world!
Meaning: Even so, I cannot bring myself to renounce the world; yet whenever something happens, the first thing I do is grieve. Ah, how bitter this world is!
Commentary: Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems II 936

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poet cannot renounce the world and take the tonsure simply because life is hard, yet whenever anything happens, grief comes first. The final line, which cries out "ah, how bitter is this world," shows the poet's feelings with striking directness.
The lament of one who cannot leave the world behind is a recurring theme of this book; picking up "the sorrows of this world" from the previous poem, this one voices the grief even more strongly.
The author, "Ono Takamura no Ason," is Ono no Takamura, son of the councillor Ono no Minemori. Appointed vice-envoy to Tang China, he refused to board the ship and was exiled to Oki, but was later pardoned and rose to the rank of councillor. He excelled in Chinese poetry and prose and was called "Councillor Ono."

The first line, "even so," accepts as its premise that the world is painful.
The second line means "I cannot turn my back on the world," that is, cannot become a monk. Re expresses possibility, and nakuni gives the concessive sense "though I cannot."
The third line, "whenever things occur," contains the emphatic particle shi.
The fourth line, "the first thing is to lament," uses re in its spontaneous sense: grief arises of itself. The poem breaks after this line.
The last line, "ah, how bitter is this world," joins the exclamation ana to the stem u of the adjective "bitter," a strong cry of grief ending on a noun. It shares this lament with "shall I say 'ah, how bitter'" in 943 and "the flower of 'ah, how bitter'" in 949.
Author: Ono no Takamura
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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