Uki fushi o mazu omoishiru namida kana sa nomi koso wa to nagusamuredomo

憂きふしをまづ思ひ知る涙かな
さのみこそはと慰むれども

Roma-ji: Uki fushi o mazu omoishiru namida kana sa nomi koso wa to nagusamuredomo
English Translation: Every painful turn
it is they who know it first,
these tears of mine, ah!
though I tell myself it's only
ever so, and so console.
Meaning: It is my tears that know every painful turn first of all, though I console myself that this is only how things are.
Commentary: Love Poems 674

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Love"
Whenever something painful happens in love, it is his tears that understand it first, flowing before his heart has grasped it. He tells himself that this is simply how things are and tries to console himself, the poet says, yet the tears come all the same. The poem expresses the pain of a love in which tears respond before reason can console.
The idea resonates with 668 in this book, on tears that reason cannot hold back.

First line, “uki fushi o”: fushi is an occasion: the painful moments.
Second line, “mazu omoishiru”: mazu is first of all, before the heart.
Third line, “namida kana”: kana is exclamatory; the poem breaks after the third line.
Fourth line, “sa nomi koso wa to”: that it is only ever so, that such is the way of the world and of love.
Fifth line, “nagusamuredomo”: though I console myself, returning in inversion to the upper verse.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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