Au koto no kataito zo to wa shirinagara tama no o bakari nani ni yoriken - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

逢ふことのかた糸ぞとは知りながら
玉の緒ばかり何によりけん

Roma-ji: Au koto no kataito zo to wa shirinagara tama no o bakari nani ni yoriken
English Translation: That our meeting
is but a single thread,
this I knew, and yet
why did I twist my very life,
the cord of my soul, toward you
Meaning: Though I knew that meeting you was a single, unpaired thread, hard to join, why did I twist the cord of my very life toward you?
Commentary: Book Nine Love Poems I 550

Headnote: "After he had met and become intimate with a woman he visited in great secrecy, he was wary of others' eyes and found it hard to meet her again."
The poet asks why, though he knew that meeting was a single, hard-to-join thread, he twisted his very life toward her. Reflecting on himself for staking his life on a love he cannot pursue for fear of others' eyes, he laments.
According to the headnote, after he had become intimate with a woman he visited in secret, he found it hard to meet her again for fear of others' eyes. Like the opening poem of this book, 507, it sings of the grief of finding meeting difficult after having met.
The poet, called "Koretada no Miko," is Prince Koretada. A son of Emperor Kōkō, he was for a time made a commoner and later restored as a prince. He was the father of Minamoto no Muneyuki.

The first line, "Au koto no," means "of our meeting."
In the second line, "kata" is a pivot word joining "kataito," a single thread not yet twisted with another, and "katashi," hard to achieve.
The third line, "shirinagara," means "though I knew it."
The fourth line, "tama no o bakari," means "only my life," "tama no o," the cord that threads jewels, meaning life and serving as an associated word with "ito," thread.
In the last line, "yori" is a pivot word meaning both "twisting" thread and one's heart "drawing near": "why did I give it to you?"
Author: Prince Koretada
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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