Uki mono to omoishirinaba u no hana no sakeru kakine mo tazunezaramashi - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

憂き物と思ひ知りなば卯の花の
咲ける垣根も尋ねざらまし

Roma-ji: Uki mono to omoishirinaba u no hana no sakeru kakine mo tazunezaramashi
English Translation: If truly you knew
it to be a thing of sorrow,
then the deutzia
blooming on that hedge of mine
you would never come to seek
Meaning: If you truly knew it to be a thing of sorrow, you would never come seeking the hedge where the deutzia blooms.
Commentary: Book Four Summer Poems 152

Headnote: "Reply."
To the one who in the preceding poem said he trusts her even while finding her a sorrow, she replies that if he had truly learned it was sorrow, he would not come seeking the deutzia hedge. She turns the tables, suggesting that one who calls it sorrow yet keeps visiting cannot mean it.
It forms an exchange with the preceding poem, 151.
The poet is listed as "anonymous," and the composer's name has not come down to us. The text gives the author as "yomibito mo," but it is treated here as anonymous.

The first line, "Uki mono to," takes up "ushi" in the preceding poem: "as a thing of sorrow." It echoes the sound "u" of the deutzia.
In the second line, "na" is the irrealis form of the completive auxiliary "nu," and "ba" marks a supposition: "if you had come to know." It forms a counterfactual construction with "mashi" in the last line.
The third line, "u no hana no," stands in the same place as "u no hana wa" in the preceding poem, giving the exchange a matching form.
The fourth line, "sakeru kakine mo," means "even the hedge where it blooms," taking up "kimi ga kakine" in the preceding poem. It shares the same words with "sakeru kakine no," the second line of 148 in this book.
In the last line, "mashi" is a counterfactual auxiliary: "you would not come seeking." She turns his words against him, implying that he comes because he does not truly find it sorrowful.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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