Kimi ya aranu waga mi ya aranu obotsukana tanomeshi koto no mina kawarinuru - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

君やあらぬ我が身やあらぬおぼつかな
頼めしことのみな変はりぬる

Roma-ji: Kimi ya aranu waga mi ya aranu obotsukana tanomeshi koto no mina kawarinuru
English Translation: Is it you who are
not the same, or is it I
who am not? Who knows.
All the promises you gave
for me to trust have changed
Meaning: Is it you who are no longer the same, or I who am no longer myself? I cannot tell. All the promises you gave me to trust in have changed.
Commentary: Book Fifteen Love Poems V 927

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
Is it you who are not the same, he asks, or I who am not? I cannot tell; all the promises you gave me to trust have changed. It draws on Ariwara no Narihira's poem in episode 4 of The Tales of Ise, "tsuki ya aranu haru ya mukashi no haru naranu waga mi hitotsu wa moto no mi ni shite." Where Narihira laments that the moon and the spring seem no longer what they were while he alone remains the same, this poem says it cannot even tell whether it is the beloved or the self that has changed, conveying the bewilderment and grief of finding every promise altered.
The author, "the monk Shun'e," was the son of Minamoto no Toshiyori. A monk of Tōdai-ji, he named his own quarters in Shirakawa the Karin'en and gathered poets there for poetry meetings. He was the poetry teacher of Kamo no Chōmei and has a poem in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
Taking up "kawariyuku" in the preceding poem, 926, this poem says "mina kawarinuru," so that poems on the beloved's change of heart follow one another.

First line, "kimi ya aranu": "ya" is an interrogative binding particle closing with "nu," the attributive of the negative "zu," "are you not the one you were?" It draws on Narihira's first line, "tsuki ya aranu."
Second line, "waga mi ya aranu": repeating the form of the first line, "am I not the one I was?" It forms a parallel couplet with the first line.
Third line, "obotsukana": the stem of the adjective "obotsukanashi," an exclamation, "how uncertain!" The poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "tanomeshi koto no": "tanome" is the continuative of the lower bigrade verb "tanomu," "to make someone trust," and "shi" the attributive of the past "ki," "the promises you gave me to trust."
Fifth line, "mina kawarinuru": "nuru," the attributive of the perfective "nu," ends the poem with an exclamatory attributive, "all have changed." It answers "kawariyuku" in the first line of the preceding poem, 926.
Author: Shun'e
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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