Omoiki ya kakaru koiji ni irisomete yoku kata mo naki nageki sen to wa

思ひきやかかる恋路に入り初めて
避くかたもなき嘆きせんとは

Roma-ji: Omoiki ya kakaru koiji ni irisomete yoku kata mo naki nageki sen to wa
English Translation: Did I ever think
that when I first set foot
on such a path of love,
I would come to know a grief
I'd find no way to escape?
Meaning: Did I ever think that, once I set foot on such a path of love, I would suffer a grief with no way to escape it?
Commentary: Miscellaneous Poems 1332

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "One hundred and ten love poems"
Did he ever think, the poet asks, that setting foot on such a path of love he would suffer grief beyond escape?
Likening love to a road, the rhetorical first line strongly conveys a suffering one cannot turn back from or avoid once entered. Looking back on love's beginning, he marvels at the depth of its pain.

First line, “omoiki ya”: ya is rhetorical, "did I ever think?", breaking after the first line.
Second line, “kakaru koiji ni”: on such a path of love.
Third line, “irisomete”: having begun to enter.
Fourth line, “yoku kata mo naki”: with no way to avoid.
Fifth line, “nageki sen to wa”: that I would grieve so, the inversion giving the content of the first line.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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