Koi suru ni shi suru mono ni aramaseba aga mi wa chitabi shinikaeramashi

恋するに死するものにあらませば
我が身は千たび死にかへらまし

Roma-ji: Koi suru ni shi suru mono ni aramaseba aga mi wa chitabi shinikaeramashi
English Translation: If it were the case
that a person dies of love
while still loving on,
then a thousand times this self
would have died and died again
Meaning: If love were a thing that could make one die, I would have died over and over, a thousand times.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2390

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing One's Feelings Directly"
If people died of love, the speaker says, he would have died a thousand times; the poem conveys the violence of love's pain through exaggeration. Through the counterfactual, it also implies that in reality he does not die but goes on suffering.
Following poem 2386 of this book, which lamented that even a stalwart man comes to regret love, this poem measures the magnitude of love's suffering by the extreme of death. In Book Four, poem 603 by Lady Kasa, "If it were the case that longing made one die, a thousand times would I have died again," is known as a closely similar poem in both idea and expression.
The author is unknown; according to the left note, the poem comes from the Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection. That collection is thought to contain both Hitomaro's own poems and poems by others that he recorded. Kakinomoto no Hitomaro was a court poet active in the reigns of Empress Jito and Emperor Monmu, and is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "koi suru ni": "through loving." The particle "ni" marks a cause, supposing that love itself could be a cause of death.
Second line, "shi suru mono ni": "a thing that dies." The supposition that people die of love is set out as if it were a general truth.
Third line, "aramaseba": "if it were so." It is "mase," the irrealis form of the counterfactual auxiliary "mashi," with "ba," and it answers the "mashi" of the last line.
Fourth line, "aga mi wa chitabi": "my body, a thousand times." "A thousand times" is an exaggeration of number, showing that the pain of love never ceases.
Fifth line, "shinikaeramashi": "I would have died again and again." Taking up "maseba" of the third line, it closes with the counterfactual "mashi," bringing out the reality of suffering without being able to die.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection
Source: Manyoshu
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