Yo no naka wa tsune kaku nomi ka musubiteshi shiratama no o no tayuraku omoeba

世間は常かくのみか結びてし
白玉の緒の絶ゆらく思へば

Roma-ji: Yo no naka wa tsune kaku nomi ka musubiteshi shiratama no o no tayuraku omoeba
English Translation: Is the world always,
is it ever only so?
When I think how the cord
of white pearls that I had tied
has come to be snapped apart
Meaning: Is this the way of the world, always and only so?—when I think how the cord of white pearls I had tied has broken.
Commentary: Book Seven Allegorical Poems 1321

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On Jewels"
Thinking of how the cord of white pearls, firmly tied, has broken, the poet laments that this is the way of the world. The cord of pearls stands for the bond between lovers, and the breaking of a firmly pledged tie is mourned as the frailty of the world.
It is the fifth poem on jewels. The second line, "is it ever only so," resembles "always only so" in the fourth line of poem 1323. The third line, "that I had tied," is the same as the third line of poem 1324; here the cord breaks, while there no one would untie it, and the two stand in contrast. The poet is unknown.

The first line, "Is the world always," uses "yo no naka," the world and also the bond between man and woman.
The second line, "is it ever only so?" ends in a question, and the poem pauses here.
The third line, "that I had tied," is the same as the third line of poem 1324.
The fourth line, "of white pearls," refers to the cord threaded through the pearls, a figure for a pledge.
The final line, "has come to be snapped apart," gives by inversion the reason for the lament in the second line.
Source: Manyoshu
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