Ika bakari omou to shirite tsurakaran aware namida no iro o misebaya - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

いかばかり思ふと知りてつらからん
あはれ涙の色を見せばや

Roma-ji: Ika bakari omou to shirite tsurakaran aware namida no iro o misebaya
English Translation: Knowing just how much
I love her, could she then be
so cruel to me?
Ah, the color of my tears,
how I wish that I could show her
Meaning: Could she be so cold if she knew how deeply I love her? Ah, if only I could show her the color of my tears.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 721

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
Would she be so cruel, he asks, if she knew how much I love her? Ah, how I wish I could show her the color of my tears. Supposing she is cold only because she does not know the depth of his love, he wishes he could show her his tears dyed crimson, so that his feelings might reach her.
The author, "Captain of the Right Gate Guards Yorizane," is Fujiwara no Yorizane. The son of Minister of the Left Fujiwara no Tsunemune, he served as Captain of the Right Gate Guards and later rose to Chancellor.
Poem 727 of this book opens with the same first line, "ika bakari." "The color of tears" is also sung of in 706 and 740.

First line, "ika bakari": "how much." Poem 727 of this book opens with the same line.
Second line, "omou to shirite": "knowing that I love her."
Third line, "tsurakaran": "n" is the conjectural "mu," "would she be so cruel?" implying that she cannot know. The poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "aware namida no": "aware" is an interjection, "ah." "The color of tears" means tears dyed crimson with grief, akin to the tears that change color in "waga namida shimo" in the fourth line of 706.
Fifth line, "iro o misebaya": "baya" is a final particle of one's own wish, "how I wish I could show their color."
Author: Fujiwara no Yorizane
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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