Kakarikeru nageki wa nani no mukui zo to shiru hito araba towamashi mono o - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

かかりける嘆きは何の報いぞと
知る人あらば問はましものを

Roma-ji: Kakarikeru nageki wa nani no mukui zo to shiru hito araba towamashi mono o
English Translation: Such grief as this,
for what deed is it repaid?
If there were someone
who knew the answer, then
I would surely ask of them
Meaning: If there were anyone who knew for what deed in a former life such grief as this is the retribution, I would ask them, if only I could.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 761

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
If there were someone who knew, he says, I would ask what deed this grief repays. Believing that so painful a love must be retribution for some deed in a former life, he wishes he could ask anyone who knows its cause, laying the Buddhist idea of karmic retribution upon love in his lament.
The author, "Minister of Popular Affairs Shigenori," is Fujiwara no Shigenori. The son of Fujiwara no Michinori, he served as Minister of Popular Affairs and rose to Middle Counselor. He loved cherry blossoms and was called the Sakuramachi Middle Counselor.
Poem 707 of this book opens with the same first line, "kakarikeru," and 768 ends with the same last line, "towamashi mono o." Poem 737 sings of love as a bond from a former life, echoing this poem in tying the pain of love to a past existence.

First line, "kakarikeru": "such as this," modifying "nageki," "grief," in the second line. Poem 707 of this book opens with the same line.
Second line, "nageki wa nani no": "this grief of love, of what."
Third line, "mukui zo to": "mukui" is what one receives as the result of deeds in a former life, following the Buddhist idea of cause and effect.
Fourth line, "shiru hito araba": "ba" after the irrealis is suppositional, "if there were someone who knew," answering "mashi" in the last line.
Fifth line, "towamashi mono o": "mashi" is the counterfactual auxiliary and "mono o" adversative lament, "I would ask them, and yet." It is the same as the last line of 768 of this book.
Author: Fujiwara no Shigenori
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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