Awazu shite koiwataru tomo wasureme ya iya hi ni ke ni wa omoi masu tomo

逢はずして恋ひわたるとも忘れめや
いや日に異には思ひ増すとも

Roma-ji: Awazu shite koiwataru tomo wasureme ya iya hi ni ke ni wa omoi masu tomo
English Translation: Though without meeting
I go on longing for you,
could I ever forget?
Rather day by day my love
would only grow the more
Meaning: Even if I must go on longing without meeting you, could I ever forget you? Rather, my love would only grow from day to day.
Commentary: Book Twelve Expressing Thoughts Directly 2882

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Thoughts Directly"
The poet vows that even if they must go on loving without meeting, forgetting is impossible; rather, love will grow day by day. Piling a rhetorical question onto a concessive supposition, the poem states unchanging love with force.
The poet is unknown. Book Twelve, titled the second part of "Love Poems Exchanged Old and New," gathers love poems by people whose names have not come down to us, arranged by category.

Line one, "awazu shite," means "without meeting."
Line two, "koiwataru tomo," means "even if I go on longing."
Line three, "wasureme ya," is a rhetorical question, "would I forget? Never." The poem pauses here.
Line four, "iya hi ni ke ni wa": "hi ni ke ni" means "more each day."
Line five, "omoi masu tomo," means "even if my love should grow," stressing that far from forgetting, love only increases.
Author: Unknown
Source: Manyoshu
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