Ato o dani kusa no hatsuka ni miteshigana musubu bakari no hodo narazu tomo - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

跡をだに草のはつかに見てしがな
むすぶばかりのほどならずとも

Roma-ji: Ato o dani kusa no hatsuka ni miteshigana musubu bakari no hodo narazu tomo
English Translation: Just a trace, at least,
like grass that barely shows,
let me glimpse, I pray,
though not grown so long that one
might bind it in a knot
Meaning: Let me see at least a trace of your hand, however slight, like grass just barely sprouting, even if it is not yet long enough to tie, even if we are not yet close enough to bind a pledge.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems I 1023

Headnote: "Composed around the Second Month when someone asked her to write a poem to send to a woman who did not reply."
This is the second poem of the sequence on love that seeks the faintest sign. Though not yet close enough to bind a pledge, the speaker longs to glimpse at least a trace of the beloved's hand, speaking through grass just sprouting. According to the headnote, it was composed around the Second Month at someone's request, to be sent to a woman who would not reply.
The author, "Izumi Shikibu," was a daughter of Ōe no Masamune, Governor of Echizen. She was called Izumi Shikibu after becoming the wife of Tachibana no Michisada, Governor of Izumi, and later served Empress Shōshi. The Izumi Shikibu Diary is hers.

In the first line, "ato" means handwriting, and "dani" means "at least." Like "ato mo naku" in 1021, Kentoku-kō's poem, this is a poem to a woman who does not reply, and the two share the longing for a trace.
The second line, "kusa no hatsuka ni," means "just barely, like grass newly sprouted and scarcely showing," drawing on the young grass of the Second Month.
In the third line, "teshigana" expresses a wish: I long to see. The poem breaks here.
In the fourth line, "musubu" pivots between tying grass and binding a pledge of love.
The last line, "hodo narazu tomo," means "even if not so far along," saying at once that the grass is not long enough to tie and the two are not close enough to pledge. Against "wakakusa" and "honoka ni miteshi" in Yoshitada's preceding poem, it turns having seen into a wish, "kusa no hatsuka ni miteshigana," so the two poems pair through sprouting grass and a faint glimpse.
Author: Izumi Shikibu
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
Prev Poem: Kataoka no yukima ni nezasu wakakusa no honoka ni miteshi hito zo koishiki
Next Poem: Shimo no ue ni ato fumitsukuru hamachidori yukue mo nashi to ne o nomi zo naku