Nakanaka ni naruru tsurasa ni kurabureba utoki urami wa misao narikeri

なかなかに馴るるつらさに比ぶれば
疎き恨みはみさをなりけり

Roma-ji: Nakanaka ni naruru tsurasa ni kurabureba utoki urami wa misao narikeri
English Translation: Rather, when compared
with the pain of growing close
and familiar,
resentment when we were strangers
was calm, I find, after all.
Meaning: Compared with the pain of growing close, the resentment I felt when we were still strangers was, I find, something I could bear calmly.
Commentary: Love Poems 681

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Love"
Compared with the pain that came after they grew intimate, the resentment he felt when they were still distant was something he could bear calmly. The depth of the suffering that comes from intimacy is shown by comparison with his former resentment.
Like 'had it stayed a love that never knew familiarity' in 665 of this book, it sings of the pain of intimacy, repeating the device of comparing the time before meeting with the time after.

First line, “nakanaka ni”: on the contrary, all the more.
Second line, “naruru tsurasa ni”: naru is to grow intimate: the pain since we grew close.
Third line, “kurabureba”: when compared.
Fourth line, “utoki urami wa”: utoshi is distant, unfamiliar, set against naruru in the second line.
Fifth line, “misao narikeri”: misao is calm composure, and narikeri marks realization.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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