Koishisa o ikaga wa subeki omoedomo mi wa kazu narazu hito wa tsurenashi - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

恋しさをいかがはすべき思へども
身は数ならず人はつれなし

Roma-ji: Koishisa o ikaga wa subeki omoedomo mi wa kazu narazu hito wa tsurenashi
English Translation: What am I to do
with this longing in my heart?
Though I love her so,
I myself am of no account,
and she is cold to me
Meaning: What am I to do with this longing? However much I love her, I am of no account, and she is cold.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 773

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
What am I to do with this longing, he asks; though I love, I am of no account, and she is cold. However much he loves her, he is too lowly a match for her, and she is ever cold, a love that has come to a dead end.
The author, "Minamoto no Moromitsu," was the son of Major Counselor Minamoto no Moroyori. A poet of the Murakami Genji, he later took the tonsure under the name Shōren. He was the father of Kunaikyō, a lady-in-waiting poet of Retired Emperor Go-Toba.
Poem 741 of this book also sings of "the grief of one of no account," sharing the lament over one's own insignificance.

First line, "koishisa o": "this longing."
Second line, "ikaga wa subeki": "ikaga" is interrogative and "wa" emphatic, "what am I to do?" The poem pauses here.
Third line, "omoedomo": "domo" is an adversative conjunctive particle, "however much I love her."
Fourth line, "mi wa kazu narazu": "I am of no account," speaking of his low standing. It shares the lament of "kazu naranu mi no" in the fourth line of 741 of this book.
Fifth line, "hito wa tsurenashi": "and she is cold." It forms a parallel with the fourth line, setting the obstacle on his side beside the one on hers.
Author: Minamoto no Moromitsu
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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