Akikaze ni midarete mono wa omoedomo hagi no shitaba no iro wa kawarazu - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

秋風に乱れてものは思へども
萩の下葉の色は変はらず

Roma-ji: Akikaze ni midarete mono wa omoedomo hagi no shitaba no iro wa kawarazu
English Translation: Though in autumn wind,
tangled, I am lost in thought,
all in disarray,
the lower leaves of bush clover
never change in their color
Meaning: Though my heart is tossed like bush clover in the autumn wind, lost in brooding, the lower leaves of the clover keep their color, and so my face betrays nothing.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems I 1026

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the second poem of the sequence on hidden love that turns on whether feeling shows in one's color. Though the heart is tossed like bush clover in the autumn wind, the clover's lower leaves keep their color, and so the feeling never shows. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Fujiwara no Takamitsu," was a son of Fujiwara no Morosuke, Minister of the Right. One of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals, he rose to Minor Captain of the Right but took the tonsure young and entered Yokawa on Mount Hiei, later living at Tōnomine, where he was called the Tōnomine Minor Captain.

The first line, "akikaze ni," means "in the autumn wind."
The second line, "midarete mono wa," overlays bush clover tossed by the wind with a heart in turmoil, lost in thought.
The third line, "omoedomo," is concessive: though I brood, and it turns to the lower verse.
In the fourth line, "shitaba" are the lower leaves, sung as the first to change color as autumn deepens.
The last line, "iro wa kawarazu," means "their color does not change," showing that the heart may be in turmoil while the outward color stays the same. After the dew on bush clover in the preceding poem comes its lower leaves, so two poems of hidden love sung through bush clover stand together.
Author: Fujiwara no Takamitsu
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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