classic waka stream

Resolving not to love,
At the Mitarashi stream
I performed ablutions—
Yet even the gods, it seems,
Have refused to receive them.

Meaning
Though I resolved to love no more and performed a purification at the Mitarashi River, the gods have not accepted my prayer.
Commentary
65. To Forbear

There was a woman in service who enjoyed the emperor’s favor. She was a cousin of the emperor’s mother and was permitted to wear garments in the forbidden colors. From her youth she had known a man of the Ariwara house who served in the Hall of Courtiers at the Seiryōden, and he was allowed to enter the women’s quarters of the palace.

The man visited the inner court again and again to meet the woman. Yet she warned him that if they continued to meet like this, one day they would surely be accused and ruin themselves. The man, however, paid no heed. Hoping that if she kept her distance he might give up, the woman withdrew to her own residence. But the man said, "Here I need not be as cautious as in the inner court—this is all the more convenient," and he continued to visit her house and return only in the morning. When people heard of this, they were astonished and laughed.

Even the man himself began to fear that if things continued in this disgraceful way, he would eventually ruin himself. He prayed to the Buddhas and the gods to stop his frenzied love, yet it only grew stronger. Seeking to calm his feelings, he summoned officials of the Bureau of Yin and Yang and shrine maidens, went to the riverbank with ritual implements, and performed rites of purification. But his sorrow only deepened, and his longing became stronger than before.
The poem was composed when the man realized that even such purification could not change his feelings.

It suggests that the man feared his own uncontrollable emotions. Clinging even to gods and buddhas, he struggles desperately to abandon or escape from his love.

The Mitarashi River is a stream flowing near a shrine where worshippers cleanse their hands before prayer. Originally the name referred to the small stream flowing from the sacred mountain to Kamo Shrine and passing through the forest of Kifune Kataoka.

It is commonly understood that the man is Ariwara no Narihira and the woman is Fujiwara no Takako, later known as the Nijō Empress. Because Takako enjoyed imperial favor and Narihira himself was the son of Prince Abo, their relationship would have appeared extremely dangerous to those around them.
Source
Ise Monogatari
Other