Omowasure ikanaru hito no suru mono zo ware wa shi kanetsu tsugite shi omoeba

面忘れいかなる人のするものぞ
我れはしかねつ継ぎてし思へば

Roma-ji: Omowasure ikanaru hito no suru mono zo ware wa shi kanetsu tsugite shi omoeba
English Translation: Forgetting a face:
what manner of person is
it that does such things?
I could never bring myself,
thinking of you without end
Meaning: Forgetting a face: what kind of person does such a thing? I cannot do it, for I think of you without ceasing.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2533

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing One's Feelings Directly"
What sort of person can forget a loved one's face? I could never do it, says the speaker in this love poem. It may also be read as quietly reproaching a lover who has grown distant and perhaps forgotten, and it states plainly a heart that thinks of the beloved without end.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather love poems by people whose names have not come down to us.

First line, "omowasure": "forgetting someone's face."
Second line, "ikanaru hito no": "what kind of person."
Third line, "suru mono zo": "is it who does it?" The particle "zo" makes a forceful question, and the poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "ware wa shi kanetsu": "I cannot do it." "Shikanu" means to be unable to do though one tries, and the particle "wa" contrasts the speaker with others.
Fifth line, "tsugite shi omoeba": "for I think of you continually." "Tsugite" means without a break, "shi" is emphatic, and "ba" after the realis gives a reason, stated afterward in inverted order to explain the fourth line.
Source: Manyoshu
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