Waga koi wa maki no shitaba ni moru shigure nuru tomo sode no iro ni ideme ya - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

我が恋は槙の下葉にもる時雨
濡るとも袖の色に出でめや

Roma-ji: Waga koi wa maki no shitaba ni moru shigure nuru tomo sode no iro ni ideme ya
English Translation: This love of mine is
autumn rain that trickles through
the cypress's lower leaves:
though it wets my sleeve, would it
ever let the color show?
Meaning: My love is like the autumn shower trickling through the lower leaves of the evergreen: though my sleeve be drenched with tears, would its color ever betray me? Never.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems I 1029

Headnote: "On the sense of 'Hidden Love' at the Kitano Shrine poetry contest."
This is the fifth poem of the sequence on hidden love that turns on whether feeling shows in one's color. Likening his love to autumn showers trickling through the lower leaves of an evergreen, he declares that though his sleeve be wet with tears, its color will never show. According to the headnote, it was composed on the topic "Hidden Love" at the Kitano Shrine poetry contest.
The author, "The Retired Emperor," is Retired Emperor Go-Toba. The fourth son of Emperor Takakura, he ruled as retired emperor after abdicating, established the Bureau of Poetry, commanded the compilation of the Shin Kokin Wakashū, and was himself deeply involved in its selection.
The Kitano Shrine poetry contest was a contest dedicated to the Kitano Tenmangū Shrine.

The first line, "waga koi wa," opens by announcing that what follows is a figure for my love.
In the second line, "maki" is a general name for fine evergreens such as cedar and cypress, sung as trees that do not change color even in autumn showers.
The third line, "moru shigure," means "the showers trickling through the lower leaves," ending on a noun as a figure for love. The poem breaks here.
The fourth line, "nuru tomo sode no," means "though drenched with tears as with showers, my sleeve's."
In the last line, "me ya" is rhetorical: would it show in my sleeve's color? Never. It shares its last line with 1025, the poem by Yakamochi. Like the sacred cedar in Yoshitsune's preceding poem, it sings of a love that never shows through evergreens and autumn showers.
Author: Go-Toba In
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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Next Poem: Waga koi wa matsu o shigure no somekanete makuzugahara ni kaze sawagu nari