Hito shirezu omou kokoro wa ashihiki no yamashitamizu no waki ya kaeran - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

人知れず思ふ心はあしひきの
山下水のわきやかへらん

Roma-ji: Hito shirezu omou kokoro wa ashihiki no yamashitamizu no waki ya kaeran
English Translation: Unknown to any,
this heart that longs for you, like
foot-wearying
mountains' hidden streams below,
must it well up, seething so?
Meaning: This heart that longs for you, unknown to anyone: is it seething, welling up like the hidden stream that runs beneath the mountain trees?
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems I 1015

Headnote: "Sent to a woman for the first time."
This is the fifth poem of the sequence on love sung through mountains. The heart that longs in secret, he wonders, may be seething like a stream welling up beneath the mountain. According to the headnote, it was the first poem he sent to a woman.
The author, "Ōe no Masahira Ason," was a scholar of the mid-Heian period who served as Doctor of Letters. He rose to Senior Assistant Minister of Ceremonial and tutored Emperor Ichijō. His wife was the poet Akazome Emon.

The first line, "hito shirezu," means "unknown to anyone."
The second line, "omou kokoro wa," means "the heart that longs for you."
The third line, "ashihiki no," is a pillow word for "mountain."
In the fourth line, "yamashitamizu" is water running unseen beneath the trees of a mountain, a figure for secret longing.
The last line, "waki ya kaeran," pivots between water welling up and a heart in violent turmoil. "Ya" poses a question resolved by "ran." After the loves sung through Mount Tsukuba, the eye turns to the water flowing beneath the mountain, and in a first love letter the poem pleads a feeling calm on the surface yet seething in its depths.
Author: Ōe no Masahira
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
Prev Poem: Ware naranu hito ni kokoro o Tsukubayama shita ni kayowan michi dani ya naki
Next Poem: Niouran kasumi no uchi no sakurabana omoiyarite mo oshiki haru kana