Shitahimo wa hito no kouru ni toku nareba ta ga tsuraki ni ka musubooruran - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

下紐は人の恋ふるに解くなれば
誰がつらきにか結ぼほるらん

Roma-ji: Shitahimo wa hito no kouru ni toku nareba ta ga tsuraki ni ka musubooruran
English Translation: An under-cord, they say,
comes untied when someone
longing, loves you so:
then whose coldness is it, I wonder,
that keeps it knotted tight?
Meaning: They say an under-cord comes untied when someone loves you; then whose coldness, I wonder, keeps it knotted so tight?
Commentary: Book Thirteen Love Poems III 786

Headnote: "Reply"
A reply to the preceding poem by Fujiwara no Yorimichi. Since an under-cord comes untied when someone loves you, she says, whose coldness is it that keeps it knotted? Turning his own folk belief against him, she retorts with wit that the cord will not loosen not because she will not open her heart, but because he does not love her.
The author, "Ben no Menoto," was the daughter of Fujiwara no Noritoki, Governor of Kaga. She served Kenshi, consort of Emperor Sanjō, and was wet nurse to her daughter Princess Teishi, later Yōmeimon'in, a lady-in-waiting known as a poet.
Paired with the preceding poem, which blamed the knotted cord on her heart, this one returns the blame to the sender's heart, so that accuser and accused trade places.

First line, "shitahimo wa": taking up "shitahimo no" in the third line of the preceding poem.
Second line, "hito no kouru ni": "when someone loves you," stating the folk belief that an under-cord loosens as a sign of being loved.
Third line, "toku nareba": "nare" is the realized form of "nari," expressing hearsay, and "ba" gives a fixed condition, "since they say it loosens."
Fourth line, "ta ga tsuraki ni ka": "tsuraki" is coldness. "Ka" is an interrogative particle that binds with "ran" in the last line, "from whose coldness?", turning the blame back on the sender.
Fifth line, "musubooruran": "ran" is the attributive of the present conjectural "ramu," concluding "ka." It answers "musubooretaru" in the second line of the preceding poem.
Author: Ben no Menoto
Source: Senzai Wakashu
Prev Poem: Urameshi ya musubooretaru shitahimo no tokenu ya nani no kokoro naruran
Next Poem: Hitori nuru ware nite shirinu ikemizu ni tsugawanu oshi no omou kokoro o