Uki nagara hito o wasuren koto katami waga kokoro koso kawarazarikere - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

憂きながら人を忘れんことかたみ
我が心こそ変はらざりけれ

Roma-ji: Uki nagara hito o wasuren koto katami waga kokoro koso kawarazarikere
English Translation: Though it hurts me so,
forgetting you is a thing
too hard to do—
it is my heart, and mine alone,
that has not changed, I find
Meaning: Bitter as it is, forgetting you is too hard for me, and so it is my heart, I find, that has stayed unchanged.
Commentary: Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems IV 1283

Headnote: "Sent on hearing that the other was intimate with someone else."
The poet says that, painful as it is, she cannot forget, and so it is her heart that has not changed. Hearing that the other has grown close to someone else, she laments that, against a fickle heart, her own remains unable to forget.
According to the headnote, it was sent on hearing that the other was intimate with someone else.
The poet is anonymous and the name is not known.

The first line, "Uki nagara," means "though it hurts."
The second line, "hito o wasuren," means "to forget you."
The third line, "koto katami," means "since it is hard," with "katami," the stem of "katashi" plus "mi," giving a reason. "Koto" echoes the "koto," other, of "another person" in the headnote. The poem pauses here.
The fourth line, "waga kokoro koso," means "it is my heart," with "koso" an emphatic binding particle, set against the other's changed heart.
The last line, "kawarazarikere," means "that has not changed, I find," closing the "koso" with the realis "kere." It shares its words with "kawarazarikeri" in the last line of 1301 of this book.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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