Narete nochi tsurakaramashi ni kurabureba naki na wa koto no kazu naranu kana - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

なれて後つらからましに比ぶれば
無き名はことの数ならぬかな

Roma-ji: Narete nochi tsurakaramashi ni kurabureba naki na wa koto no kazu naranu kana
English Translation: Beside the anguish
if, once we had grown close,
you were to turn cold,
a baseless rumor, after all,
hardly counts as anything
Meaning: Compared with how painful it would be if you turned cold after we had grown close, a groundless rumor counts for nothing at all.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 728

Headnote: "Composed when someone told her, 'Don't you know that rumors are spreading?' about a man with whom she exchanged words from time to time"
Composed when someone told her that rumors were spreading about her and a man with whom she exchanged words from time to time. Compared with how painful it would be if he turned cold after they had grown close, she says, a groundless rumor is nothing. Far more than gossip, she fears a change of heart after the bond has deepened, revealing a woman's heart that sees ahead to where love may lead.
The author, "Echigo of the Third Prince's household," was a lady-in-waiting in the household of Prince Sukehito, the Third Prince. Little is known of her career.
Poem 725 of this book opens with the same first line, "narete nochi," and shares the thought of parting after growing close. The next poem, 729, is also a woman's poem about a rumor that has arisen.

First line, "narete nochi": "after we have grown close." Poem 725 of this book opens with the same line.
Second line, "tsurakaramashi ni": "mashi" is the counterfactual auxiliary, "than the pain there would be if you turned cold."
Third line, "kurabureba": "when compared."
Fourth line, "naki na wa koto no": "naki na" is a groundless rumor. It corresponds to "tachiken na dani" in the fourth line of the next poem, 729, in singing of rumor.
Fifth line, "kazu naranu kana": "kazu naranu" means "of no account," and "kana" is exclamatory, "it hardly counts at all!"
Author: Echigo
Source: Senzai Wakashu
Prev Poem: Ika bakari koiji wa tōki mono nareba toshi wa yukedomo au yo nakaran
Next Poem: Aimimu to omoi na yori so shiranami no tachiken na dani oshiki migiwa o