Nani sen ni tsurenakarishi o uramiken awazu wa kakaru omoi semashi ya

何せんにつれなかりしを恨みけん
逢はずはかかる思ひせましや

Roma-ji: Nani sen ni tsurenakarishi o uramiken awazu wa kakaru omoi semashi ya
English Translation: To what purpose then
did I resent the coldness
that you showed to me?
had we never met, would I
now be brooding in this way?
Meaning: Why did I ever resent your coldness? Had we never met, would I be suffering such brooding now?
Commentary: Love Poems 666

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Love"
What was the point, the poet asks, of resenting the beloved's coldness before they met? Had they never met, he would not be suffering this painful brooding now. Realizing that it is harder since they met, he regrets his former resentment.
Following the preceding poem on the pain born of intimacy, this one sings of the brooding born of having met, continuing the device of comparing the time before meeting with the time after.

First line, “nani sen ni”: for what purpose, why.
Second line, “tsurenakarishi o”: tsurenashi is cold: her coldness before we met.
Third line, “uramiken”: ken is past conjecture: why did I resent it? The poem breaks after the third line.
Fourth line, “awazu wa kakaru”: had we not met, such.
Fifth line, “omoi semashi ya”: mashi is counterfactual and ya rhetorical: would I have brooded so? I would not.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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