Kaku to dani iwade hakanaku koishinaba yagate shirarenu mi to ya narinamu - Shika Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

かくとだに言はではかなく恋ひ死なば
やがて知られぬ身とやなりなむ

Roma-ji: Kaku to dani iwade hakanaku koishinaba yagate shirarenu mi to ya narinamu
English Translation: Not even saying
"this is how I feel," if I
should die of love in vain,
will I simply then become
one whom no one ever knew
Meaning: If I die of love in vain without ever saying even "this is how I feel," will I simply pass away, unknown to the one I love?
Commentary: Book Seven Love Poems I 189

The poet laments that if he dies of love without confessing, his love will end without ever being known to the beloved. The poem carries a keen anxiety about where a hidden love must finally lead.

The first line, "kaku to dani" (not even "thus"), shows a hidden love in which the speaker cannot voice even a fragment of his feelings.
The second line, "iwade hakanaku" (unspoken, in vain), uses the negative "de" to stress that he never confesses.
The third line, "koishinaba" (should I die of love), sets up a hypothesis with "ba." The theme of dying of love appears again in 197 and 221 of this book.
The fourth line, "yagate shirarenu" (simply unknown), pairs with "shirasu beki" of the preceding poem, 188, placing one who dies unknown after one who seeks a way to make his love known.
The final line, "mi to ya narinamu," forms a kakari-musubi with the particle "ya" and the attributive "mu," closing with an uneasy question: will it come to that?
Source: Shika Wakashu
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