Masurao to omoeru ware o kaku bakari koi seshimuru wa ashiku wa arikeri

ますらをと思へる我れをかくばかり
恋せしむるは悪しくはありけり

Roma-ji: Masurao to omoeru ware o kaku bakari koi seshimuru wa ashiku wa arikeri
English Translation: I who thought myself
a man of courage and strength,
to make me like this
so deeply fall into love,
how cruel a thing it was
Meaning: I, who thought myself a brave and manly man, to be made to love like this: how cruel a thing it has been.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2584

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing One's Feelings Directly"
He had thought himself a brave man, and yet to be made to suffer from love to this degree has been cruel: this is a man's lament. It frankly expresses his astonishment at how easily his pride as a brave man has crumbled before love, and a reproach toward the one who made him love.
It belongs to the category "Expressing One's Feelings Directly." In poem 2571 of this book a woman supposes that a brave man finds comfort in the company of his friends, and this poem stands in contrast to it by showing the suffering on the man's side. It also shares a motif with poem 2580, in which a man sings of himself still longing despite being a man.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather the love poems of people whose names have not come down to us.

First line, "masurao to": "as a brave man." It shows the speaker's pride in being bold and manly.
Second line, "omoeru ware o": "me, who thought so." "Ru," the attributive of the continuative auxiliary "ri," shows that he has long thought this of himself.
Third line, "kaku bakari": "to this extent." It points to the magnitude of the pain of love.
Fourth line, "koi seshimuru wa": "to make me love." The causative auxiliary "shimu" shows that the other person has made him fall in love.
Fifth line, "ashiku wa arikeri": "was a cruel thing." The line has an extra syllable, and the auxiliary "keri" expresses the wonder of realization.
Source: Manyoshu
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