Ware o omou hito o omowanu mukui ni ya waga omou hito no ware o omowanu - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

我を思ふ人を思はぬ報いにや
わが思ふ人の我を思はぬ

Roma-ji: Ware o omou hito o omowanu mukui ni ya waga omou hito no ware o omowanu
English Translation: For not loving one
who has given me their love,
is this the penalty—
that the one whom I love
does not love me in return?
Meaning: Is it retribution for not loving the one who loves me that the one I love does not love me?
Commentary: Book Nineteen Miscellaneous Forms 1041

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
Explaining a chain of unrequited love as karmic retribution and setting "omou" and "omowanu," love and not love, in parallel, the poem's logical play gives it its haikai quality. The next poem is placed as if responding to its reasoning.
The author is unknown and is recorded as "Anonymous."

First line, "Ware o omou," means who loves me. The line has an extra syllable.
Second line, "hito o omowanu," means that I do not love that person.
Third line, "mukui ni ya," uses interrogative "ya," answered by the attributive "omowanu" at the end. The poem breaks here and is inverted.
Fourth line, "waga omou hito no," mirrors the structure of the first two lines.
Fifth line, "ware o omowanu," ends with the same "omowanu" as the second line, creating a parallel echo.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Kokin Wakashu
Prev Poem: Ware o nomi omou to iwaba arubeki o ide ya kokoro wa ōnusa ni shite
Next Poem: Omoikemu hito o zo tomo ni omowamashi masashi ya mukui nakarikeri ya wa