Yo no naka shi tsune kaku nomi to katsu shiredo itaki kokoro wa shinobikanetsu mo

世間し常かくのみとかつ知れど
痛き心は忍びかねつも

Roma-ji: Yo no naka shi tsune kaku nomi to katsu shiredo itaki kokoro wa shinobikanetsu mo
English Translation: This world of ours, well,
it is always only so—
that I know, and yet
this heart that is filled with pain
I cannot bear to endure.
Meaning: I know that the world is always like this—and yet I cannot bear the pain in my heart.
Commentary: Book Three Elegies 472

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Five more poems composed while grief had not yet ceased"
This is the third of the five poems composed while his grief had not yet ceased. He knows in his mind that the world is always so, yet cannot bear the pain in his heart—torn between the reason that knows impermanence and feelings that will not be contained. It repeats the thought of poem 465, "I know that this world is fleeting."
This belongs to a sequence of elegies that Ōtomo no Yakamochi composed from the sixth month of summer into autumn in Tenpyō 11 (739), mourning his late concubine.
The poet, Ōtomo no Yakamochi, was a son of Ōtomo no Tabito and a Nara-period official. He served as Governor of Etchū and of Inaba, among other posts, rose to Middle Counselor, and died in Enryaku 4 (785). He is thought to have been deeply involved in compiling the Man'yōshū.

First line "This world of ours, well": shi is emphatic.
Second line "it is always only so" means it is ever like this.
Third line "that I know, and yet": katsu means "on the one hand."
Fourth line "this heart that is filled with pain" names his aching heart.
Fifth line "I cannot bear to endure": shinobu means to endure, and kanu to be unable.
Author: Otomo no Yakamochi
Source: Manyoshu
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