Kawariyuku keshiki o mite mo ikeru mi no inochi o ada ni omoikeru kana - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

変はりゆく気色を見ても生ける身の
命をあだに思ひけるかな

Roma-ji: Kawariyuku keshiki o mite mo ikeru mi no inochi o ada ni omoikeru kana
English Translation: Though I have watched him
change before my very eyes,
I live on, and yet
all this while I had thought that
my life was a fragile thing
Meaning: Though I have watched his manner change before my eyes, I live on; and all this while I had thought my life so fragile.
Commentary: Book Fifteen Love Poems V 926

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
Though I have seen his manner change and still live, she says, I had thought my life a fragile thing. She had believed that if she saw her lover's heart change she would die of grief, yet even having witnessed the change she lives on. She had thought life fleeting, but it proves not to end even in such pain, and through this bitter discovery she sings of the anguish of love. The last line in the text reads "omoikeru kaka," which is taken as a copying error; the line of kana readings, "omoikeru kana," is followed here.
The author, "Inpumon'in no Taifu," was the daughter of Fujiwara no Nobunari. A lady-in-waiting poet who served Princess Ryōshi, the Inpumon'in, daughter of Emperor Go-Shirakawa, she was known as a prolific poet and has a poem in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
Poem 910 of this book, "utagaishi inochi bakari wa ari nagara," likewise tells of a life that goes on after the beloved's heart has left. The word "kawaru," "to change," also links this poem to the next, 927, "mina kawarinuru."

First line, "kawariyuku": "changing," referring to the lover's change of heart. It answers "mina kawarinuru" in the last line of the next poem, 927.
Second line, "keshiki o mite mo": "keshiki" means manner or attitude, "even seeing his manner grow cold."
Third line, "ikeru mi no": "ike" is the perfective of "iku," "to live," and "ru" the attributive of the continuative "ri," "this self that still lives."
Fourth line, "inochi o ada ni": "ada" means fleeting or fragile.
Fifth line, "omoikeru kana": "keru" is the attributive of "keri," expressing realization, and "kana" exclamatory, "so I had thought." It conveys her realization that life is harder to end than she had imagined.
Author: Inpumon-in no Taifu
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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