Shiru ya kimi shirazu wa ika ni tsurakaramu waga kaku bakari omou kokoro o - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

知るや君知らずはいかにつらからむ
我がかくばかり思ふ心を

Roma-ji: Shiru ya kimi shirazu wa ika ni tsurakaramu waga kaku bakari omou kokoro o
English Translation: Do you know, my love?
If you know not, how bitter,
how cruel it would be,
this heart that loves you so,
loving you as much as this?
Meaning: Do you know, my love? If you do not, how bitter it would be: this heart of mine that loves you so.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 754

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
The poem asks whether the beloved knows, and says how bitter it would be if not, of the heart that loves her so. Opening with a direct address to the beloved, it uses inversion to press home the anxiety that the love may not have reached her. Following the preceding poem, 753, which wished to make the beloved know the pain of love, this poem asks whether she knows the poet's heart.

First line, "shiru ya kimi," means "do you know, my love," addressing the beloved directly. The poem breaks after this first line.
Second line, "shirazu wa ika ni," means "if you do not, how," with "zu wa" a negative supposition.
Third line, "tsurakaramu," means "bitter it would be," with "mu" conjectural. The line breaks here too.
Fourth line, "waga kaku bakari," means "so much as I do."
Final line, "omou kokoro o," means "this heart that loves you," giving in inverted order the object of "shiru" in the first line. It shares the wish to make one's love known with the third line of the preceding poem, 753, "shirasu beku."
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Shui Wakashu
Prev Poem: Koi suru wa kurushiki mono to shirasu beku hito o waga mi ni shibashi nasaba ya
Next Poem: Asu shiranu waga mi nari tomo urami okamu kono yo nite nomi yamaji to omoeba