classic waka stream

恋ゆゑはさもあらぬ人ぞ恨めしき
我よそならば問はましものを
Roma-ji

Koi yue wa samo aranu hito zo urameshiki ware yoso naraba towamashi mono o

English Translation
Because of my love
even those who have no part
in it I resent:
if I were the one apart,
I would surely ask how they fared
Meaning
Because of love, I resent even those who have nothing to do with it; if I were the outsider, I would surely ask how they were faring.
Commentary
Book Twelve Love Poems II 768

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed as a love poem"
Like the preceding poem, it is composed as a love poem. Because of love, he says, even those who have no part in it are hateful to me; if I were an outsider, I would ask after them. Lamenting that no one cares about him as he suffers in love, and saying that in their place he would surely offer a word, he expresses a heart that resents not only the beloved but those around him as well.
The author, "Sugawara no Koretada," was an official and poet of the last years of the Heian period. Little is known of his career.
Poem 761 of this book closes with the same last line, "towamashi mono o." Where 761 wishes to ask someone who knows the karmic cause of love's pain, this poem says that as an outsider he would ask after one suffering in love, using the same last line in a different sense.

First line, "koi yue wa": "because of love."
Second line, "samo aranu hito zo": "samo aranu" means "not such, unconnected," those who are not the beloved. "Zo" is an emphatic particle binding with the attributive "urameshiki" in the third line.
Third line, "urameshiki": "hateful," and the poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "ware yoso naraba": "yoso" is the position of an outsider, "if I were someone else," answering "mashi" in the last line.
Fifth line, "towamashi mono o": "tou" is to call on or ask after someone, "mashi" is counterfactual and "mono o" adversative lament, "I would ask after them." It is the same as the last line of 761 of this book.
Author
Sugawara no Koretada
Source
Senzai Wakashu
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