Ukarikeru yoyo no chigiri o omou ni mo tsuraki wa ima no kokoro nomi ka wa - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

憂かりける世々の契りを思ふにも
つらきは今の心のみかは

Roma-ji: Ukarikeru yoyo no chigiri o omou ni mo tsuraki wa ima no kokoro nomi ka wa
English Translation: When I think upon
the bitter pledge that binds me
through lives past and gone,
is it only the present heart
of the one I love that's cruel?
Meaning: When I think of the bitter bonds that have bound me through lives long past, is it only my lover's present heart that is cruel? No, the fate of former lives is cruel as well.
Commentary: Book Fifteen Love Poems V 919

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed as a love poem when presenting a hundred-poem sequence"
A love poem from the same hundred-poem sequence as the preceding poem. When I think of the bitter bonds of lives past, she says, is it only the present heart that is cruel? "Yoyo no chigiri" is the karmic bond fixed in former lives; reaching out to the Buddhist idea of destiny, she laments deeply that love goes wrong not only because of her lover's present heart but because of bonds from earlier lives.
The author, "Jōsaimon'in no Hyōe," was the daughter of Minamoto no Akinaka, Head of the Council of Divinities. A younger sister of Taikenmon'in no Horikawa, she served Taikenmon'in and later her daughter, Princess Muneko, Jōsaimon'in. She was one of the poets of the Kyūan sequences.
This is the second poem in the sequence, following the preceding poem by her elder sister Taikenmon'in no Horikawa. Where the preceding poem lamented the change in "even my own heart," this one, saying "is it only the present heart," places the heart within bonds reaching back to former lives.

First line, "ukarikeru": "ukari" is the continuative of the adjective "ushi," "painful," and "keru" the attributive of the past "keri," "which have been bitter."
Second line, "yoyo no chigiri o": "yoyo no chigiri" is the karmic bond continuing from former lives. Poem 928 of this book, "mi no chigiri kana," also sings of a bond of destiny.
Third line, "omou ni mo": "even as I think." It is the same line as the third line of 908 of this book.
Fourth line, "tsuraki wa ima no": "tsuraki" means heartless or cold, and "ima," "now," pairs with "yoyo," "lives past," in the second line.
Fifth line, "kokoro nomi ka wa": "nomi" is restrictive and "ka wa" a rhetorical particle, "is it only the heart? not so." It answers "waga kokoro sae" in the fourth line of the preceding poem, 918, through the word "kokoro."
Author: Jōsaimon'in no Hyōe
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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