Wasuraren koto o ba kanete omoiniki nani odorokasu namida naruran

忘られんことをばかねて思ひにき
何驚かす涙なるらん

Roma-ji: Wasuraren koto o ba kanete omoiniki nani odorokasu namida naruran
English Translation: That I'd be forgotten
I had known and steeled myself
long before it came—
why, then, do these tears now flow
as if they were taken aback?
Meaning: I had long expected to be forgotten. Why, then, do these tears flow as if I had been taken by surprise?
Commentary: Miscellaneous Poems 1278

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "One hundred and ten love poems"
He had long expected to be forgotten, yet why do his tears flow as if startled? the poet asks.
Though prepared in his mind, the heart cannot bear the actual forgetting, and tears overflow; it sings of the gap between reason and feeling, the sorrow of love nearing its end.

First line, “wasuraren”: re is passive and n conjectural, "that I would be forgotten."
Second line, “koto o ba kanete”: kanete means "beforehand."
Third line, “omoiniki”: niki is perfective and past, "I had resigned myself"; the poem breaks here.
Fourth line, “nani odorokasu”: why do they start?
Fifth line, “namida naruran”: ran conjectures a cause, "why are these tears?"
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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