Tsurenasa ni ima wa omoi mo taenamashi kono yo hitotsu no chigiri nariseba - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

つれなさに今は思ひも絶えなまし
この世一つの契りなりせば

Roma-ji: Tsurenasa ni ima wa omoi mo taenamashi kono yo hitotsu no chigiri nariseba
English Translation: Before her coldness
I would give up loving now
and be done with it,
if ours had been a bond
of this one life alone
Meaning: Faced with her coldness, I would give up my love by now, if only our bond belonged to this one life alone.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 737

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
Faced with her coldness, he says, I would give up my love by now, if our bond were of this world alone. He reasons that he cannot let go despite such coldness because this love is a deep bond formed in a former life, laying the Buddhist bond of the three worlds upon love to express the pain of a love he cannot give up.
The author, "the monk Kenshō," was the adopted son of Fujiwara no Akisuke, Master of the Left Capital Office. He is known as a poetic scholar of the Rokujō Fujiwara house and wrote treatises such as the Shūchūshō.
The last line of the preceding poem, 736, "omoitaename," and this poem's upper verse, "omoi mo taenamashi," both suppose the cutting off of love and sing of a love that cannot do so, forming a pair. Poem 775 of this book also sings of a bond from "a former life."

First line, "tsurenasa ni": "because of her coldness."
Second line, "ima wa omoi mo": "by now, my love too."
Third line, "taenamashi": "na" is the irrealis of the perfective "nu" and "mashi" the counterfactual auxiliary answering "seba" in the last line, "I would have given it up." The poem pauses here and stands in inverted order with what follows. It shares the thought of "omoitaename" in the last line of the preceding poem.
Fourth line, "kono yo hitotsu no": "of this world alone," implying a bond not reaching into former or future lives.
Fifth line, "chigiri nariseba": "chigiri" is a karmic bond, and "seba" is a counterfactual condition, "if it were a bond of this world alone."
Author: Kenshō
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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