Ikade kaku kokoro hitotsu o futashie ni uku mo tsuraku mo nashite misuran - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

いかでかく心ひとつをふたしへに
憂くもつらくもなして見すらん

Roma-ji: Ikade kaku kokoro hitotsu o futashie ni uku mo tsuraku mo nashite misuran
English Translation: How is it that you
take my heart, which is but one,
and make it twofold,
showing me both sorrow
and bitterness at once
Meaning: How is it that you take my single heart and split it in two, making me know both sorrow and bitterness?
Commentary: Book Nine Love Poems I 555

Headnote: "Sent to someone who had grown cold."
The poet asks why he takes her single heart and splits it in two, making her know both sorrow and bitterness. Because of a lover grown cold, she appeals with the pain of one heart torn between sorrow and bitterness.
According to the headnote, the poem was sent to someone who had grown cold. Through the device of setting one against two, it expresses a heart torn apart.
The poet, called "Ise," was a daughter of Fujiwara no Tsugukage. She served Empress Onshi, consort of Emperor Uda, and later received the emperor's favor. A leading woman poet of the Kokinshū era, she is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.

The first line, "Ikade kaku," means "how is it that, in this way."
The second line, "kokoro hitotsu o," means "my single heart," set against "futashie," twofold, in the third line.
The third line, "futashie ni," is understood to mean "twofold, in two ways."
The fourth line, "uku mo tsuraku mo," means "both sorrowful and bitter."
In the last line, "ran" is an auxiliary of present conjecture: "why do you make it so and show it to me?"
Author: Ise
Source: Gosen Wakashu
Prev Poem: Kimi o omou fukasa kurabe ni Tsu no kuni no horie mi ni yuku ware ni ya wa aranu
Next Poem: Tomosureba tama ni kurabeshi masukagami hito no takara to miru zo kanashiki