Omoiidete tare o ka hito no tazunemashi uki ni taetaru inochi narazu wa - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

思ひ出でて誰をか人の尋ねまし
憂きに堪へたる命ならずは

Roma-ji: Omoiidete tare o ka hito no tazunemashi uki ni taetaru inochi narazu wa
English Translation: Remembering me,
whom would you have come to seek,
I ask you, had not
this life of mine endured
through all the misery
Meaning: Remembering, whom would you have come to visit, I wonder, had this life of mine not endured through all the misery you gave me?
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 843

Headnote: "Sent in reply when a man who had long stopped coming sent word"
This poem was sent in reply when a man who had long ceased to visit sent her a message. Remembering me, whom would you have come to visit, she says, had my life not endured through the misery. It is precisely because she has borne the pain of his absence and lived on that she can now receive his word, and she reproaches him for his coldness with resentment.
The author, "Koshikibu," is thought to be Koshikibu no Naishi. The daughter of Izumi Shikibu and Tachibana no Michisada, she served Jōtōmon'in Shōshi alongside her mother. She died young, before her mother. A poem of hers is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.

First line, "omoiidete": "remembering me," whom he had long forgotten.
Second line, "tare o ka hito no": "ka" is an interrogative particle that binds with the attributive "tazunemashi" in the third line. "Hito" refers to the man who has sent word.
Third line, "tazunemashi": "mashi" is the auxiliary of counterfactual supposition; with "narazu wa" in the last line it means "whom would you have visited had I not lived." The poem pauses here and stands in inverted order with the lower half.
Fourth line, "uki ni taetaru": "uki" is the pain of his ceasing to visit, "having endured that pain."
Fifth line, "inochi narazu wa": "zu wa" is a negative supposition, "were it not for this life." She pleads that her very survival is proof of having endured his coldness.
Author: Koshikibu no Naishi
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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