Tsurashi tote sate wa yomo ware yamagarasu kashira wa shiroku naru yo nari tomo - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

つらしとてさてはよもわれやまがらす
頭は白くなる世なりとも

Roma-ji: Tsurashi tote sate wa yomo ware yamagarasu kashira wa shiroku naru yo nari tomo
English Translation: Because you are cold,
shall I give up on you now?
Never, mountain crow,
not even should there come a world
where your black head turns white
Meaning: Because you are cold, shall I give you up? Never, not even if the world should come to a day when the mountain crow's head turns white.
Commentary: Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems III 1198

Headnote: "Composed when I was courting a woman and she said it was utterly out of the question and that I should give up the thought"
He was courting a woman who told him it was utterly impossible and that he should give her up, and so he composed this poem. Because you are cold, shall I then stop? Never, even in a world where the mountain crow's head turns white, he says. A crow's head turning white is an expression found in a Chinese tale as a figure for the impossible, and taking up her word "impossible," he retorts that his love will not die even if the impossible should happen, and in this lies the humorous spirit.
The author, "Anshō Hōshi," was the name taken on entering religion by Toyohara no Tokimoto, a court musician famed as a master of the shō mouth organ.
It is the nineteenth of the humorous poems.

First line, "tsurashi tote": "because you are cold."
Second line, "sate wa yomo ware": "sate wa" means "and so," and "yomo" means "surely not," leading to the sense that he will never give up his love.
Third line, "yamagarasu": a crow of the mountains, with "yama" playing on "yama(ji)," "I will not stop," continuing from "yomo ware" in the second line.
Fourth line, "kashira wa shiroku": the crow's head turning white, a figure for the impossible.
Fifth line, "naru yo nari tomo": "tomo" is a concessive conjunctive particle, "even should such a world come."
Author: Anshō
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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