Omou ni shi shini suru mono ni aramaseba chitabi zo ware wa shinikaeramashi

思ふにし死にするものにあらませば
千たびぞ我れは死にかへらまし

Roma-ji: Omou ni shi shini suru mono ni aramaseba chitabi zo ware wa shinikaeramashi
English Translation: If from longing's pain
one could truly die of love,
then a thousand times
over I would surely have
died and died again by now
Meaning: If one could die of longing, I would have died and died again a thousand times over.
Commentary: Book Four Love Poems 603

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Twenty-four poems sent by Lady Kasa to Ōtomo no Sukune Yakamochi"
If longing could kill, she says, she would have died a thousand times, exaggerating the pain of love. The bold counterfactual reveals one of the fiercest feelings in the whole series.
The author, Lady Kasa, was a woman poet of the Nara period who sent many love poems to Ōtomo no Yakamochi. Little else is known of her.

First line, "If from longing's pain," uses the emphatic shi: through longing.
Second line, "one could truly die of love," means if it were something one died of.
Third line, "then a thousand times," uses mase, the irrealis of the counterfactual mashi, with -ba: if it were so.
Fourth line, "over I would surely have," means a thousand times I, strengthened by zo, which is closed by mashi in the fifth line.
Fifth line, "died and died again by now," uses shinikaeru, "to die over and over," with the counterfactual mashi.
Author: Lady Kasa
Source: Manyoshu
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