Yo no naka wa mukashi yori ya wa ukarikemu waga mi hitotsu no tame ni nareru ka - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

世の中は昔よりやは憂かりけむ
わが身ひとつのためになれるか

Roma-ji: Yo no naka wa mukashi yori ya wa ukarikemu waga mi hitotsu no tame ni nareru ka
English Translation: Has the world always,
from the days of long ago,
been so full of grief?
Or is it for me alone
that it has become this way?
Meaning: Has the world been this painful since long ago? Or has it become so only on my account?
Commentary: Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems II 948

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poem asks whether the world's pain has always been there, or whether it has become painful because of the poet alone. It shows a heart that draws the sorrows of the world toward its own circumstances.
Poem 960 in this book also speaks of calling the world bitter because of oneself; the two share the question of how the world's sorrows relate to the self.
The author is recorded as anonymous, and the name has not come down to us.

The first line, "has the world," presents the theme.
The second line, "from the days of long ago," uses the interrogative particle ya wa.
The third line, "been so full of grief?", uses kemu, conjecture about the past, in the attributive form required by ya wa. The poem breaks after this line.
The fourth line, "for me alone," narrows the question to the poet's own self.
The last line, "that it has become this way?", uses ru, the attributive form of the continuative ri, with the question particle ka.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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