Nado ka ware koto no hoka naru nageki sede misao naru mi ni umarezariken

などか我ことのほかなる嘆きせで
みさをなる身に生まれざりけん

Roma-ji: Nado ka ware koto no hoka naru nageki sede misao naru mi ni umarezariken
English Translation: Why was it that I,
without this extraordinary
grief that I endure,
was not born into a self
that could keep its calm composed?
Meaning: Why was I not born someone who could stay calm and composed, free of this extraordinary grief?
Commentary: Love Poems 689

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Love"
Why, the poet laments, was he not born a person who could stay calm and composed, without such extraordinary grief? He resents his own nature, which suffers so in love, and grieves over it as the fate he was born with.
It uses misao, calm composure, the same word as in 681 of this book, lamenting a self that cannot keep its calm.

First line, “nado ka ware”: nado ka is why; the binding particle ka is answered by the attributive ken at the end.
Second line, “koto no hoka naru”: extraordinary, beyond the ordinary.
Third line, “nageki sede”: de is a negative conjunctive particle: without such grieving.
Fourth line, “misao naru mi ni”: misao is calm composure.
Fifth line, “umarezariken”: ken is conjecture about a past cause: why was I not born so? closing in the attributive form answering ka.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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