Asamashi ya mishi ka to dani mo omowanu ni kawaranu kao zo kokoro naramashi - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

あさましや見しかとだにも思はぬに
変はらぬ顔ぞ心ならまし

Roma-ji: Asamashi ya mishi ka to dani mo omowanu ni kawaranu kao zo kokoro naramashi
English Translation: How wretched it is!
Though they do not even think
that once we two met,
if only that unchanged face
were the heart within as well.
Meaning: How wretched—you no longer even remember that we once met. If only your heart were as unchanged as your face.
Commentary: Book Fifteen Love Poems V 949

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
The poem says: how wretched, when they no longer even think we once met; if only the heart were like that unchanged face. It sings of dismay at a lover whose face is as before but whose heart has gone far away, and of a lingering refusal to accept that change of heart.
With the preceding poem, 948, it speaks of "face" and "heart," forming a pair through the contrast of an unchanged face and a changed heart.

First line, "asamashi ya," means "how wretched, how appalling," with "ya" exclamatory. The poem breaks here.
Second line, "mishi ka to dani mo," means "even that we once met," with "miru" meaning a man and woman meeting and "shi" the attributive of the past auxiliary "ki."
Third line, "omowanu ni," means "though they do not think."
Fourth line, "kawaranu kao zo," means "the unchanged face," with the binding particle "zo" forming a kakari-musubi with the final line. It shares "kao zo" with the final line of the preceding poem, 948, "kao zo koishiki."
Final line, "kokoro naramashi," means "if only it were the heart," with "mashi" a counterfactual auxiliary concluding in the attributive in answer to "zo" in the fourth line.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Shui Wakashu
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