Tsutsumedomo taenu omoi ni narinureba towazugatari no semahoshiki kana - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

包めども堪へぬ思ひになりぬれば
問はず語りのせまほしきかな

Roma-ji: Tsutsumedomo taenu omoi ni narinureba towazugatari no semahoshiki kana
English Translation: Though I hid it well,
it has grown a love too great
for me to endure:
how I long to tell it all,
though none has asked me to
Meaning: Though I have kept it hidden, my love has grown past all bearing, and now I long to pour it out, though no one has even asked.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems I 649

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
Though I hide it, he says, it has become a love I cannot bear, and I long to speak of it unasked. He frankly expresses the movement of a heart whose hidden love has reached its limit, so that he wants to confess though no one has asked him.
The author, "Major Counselor Narimichi," is Fujiwara no Narimichi. The son of Provisional Major Counselor Fujiwara no Munemichi, he rose to Major Counselor. He was famed as a master of kemari, the courtly football game.
It opens with the same line, "tsutsumedomo," as the preceding poem, 648. Where that poem says love became known through tears, this one answers with a heart that longs to speak of itself.

First line, "tsutsumedomo": "though I hide it," the same as the first line of the preceding poem.
Second line, "taenu omoi ni": "tae" means to endure, and "nu" is the attributive of the negative "zu," "into a love I cannot bear." It shares its wording with "taenu keshiki wa" in the last line of 683 of this book.
Third line, "narinureba": "nure" is the perfective of the perfective auxiliary "nu," and with "ba" it means "since it has become."
Fourth line, "towazugatari no": "towazugatari" means speaking of oneself without being asked.
Fifth line, "semahoshiki kana": "mahoshiki" is the attributive of the desiderative "mahoshi," and "kana" an exclamatory final particle, "how I long to."
Author: Fujiwara no Narimichi
Source: Senzai Wakashu
Prev Poem: Tsutsumedomo namida ni sode no arawarete koi su to hito ni shirarenuru kana
Next Poem: Ōkata no koi suru hito ni kikinarete yo no tsune no to ya kimi omouran