Uki ni dani nadonado hito o omoedomo kanawade toshi no tsumorinuru kana

憂きにだになどなど人を思へども
叶はで年の積もりぬるかな

Roma-ji: Uki ni dani nadonado hito o omoedomo kanawade toshi no tsumorinuru kana
English Translation: Even in my pain
why, oh why, do I love you,
go on loving you,
yet unfulfilled the years now
have come to pile up so high!
Meaning: Even in my pain I go on loving you, asking myself why, why, yet with nothing fulfilled the years have piled up so high.
Commentary: Love Poems 664

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Love"
Even while suffering from the beloved's coldness, the poet goes on loving her, so much that he himself asks why, why. Yet his love has gone unanswered, and only the years have piled up in vain. The poem laments the weight of the years spent on an unrequited love.

First line, “uki ni dani”: ushi is painful, and dani means even: even when it is painful.
Second line, “nadonado hito o”: nadonado is why, why, so that the poet himself wonders.
Third line, “omoedomo”: though I love her, leading concessively into the lower verse.
Fourth line, “kanawade toshi no”: de is a negative conjunctive particle: without its being fulfilled.
Fifth line, “tsumorinuru kana”: how they have piled up; kana is exclamatory.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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