Mirume koso irinuru iso no kusa narame sode sae nami no shita ni kuchinuru - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

みるめこそ入りぬる磯の草ならめ
袖さへ波の下に朽ちぬる

Roma-ji: Mirume koso irinuru iso no kusa narame sode sae nami no shita ni kuchinuru
English Translation: Chances to meet you
are like weeds along the shore
sunk by rising tides;
but even my sleeves have rotted
beneath the waves of my tears.
Meaning: Chances to see you may well be as rare as the seaweed on a rocky shore, hidden whenever the tide comes in; and yet even my sleeves have rotted away beneath the waves of my tears.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 1084

Headnote: "Composed as a love poem."
This is the fourth poem of the group expressing hidden love through smoke and seaside imagery. Likening the lack of chances to meet to seaweed hidden by the rising tide, the speaker laments that even her sleeves have rotted beneath waves of tears. According to the headnote it was composed as a love poem, and the circumstances are not recorded.
The author is Nijō-in no Sanuki, the daughter of Minamoto no Yorimasa. She served Emperor Nijō and later Gishūmon-in Ninshi, empress of Emperor Go-Toba.
The source poem is "Is my love like the weeds of a rocky shore, sunk when the tide is full? So seldom seen, so much longed for," included in the Shūishū as a poem by Sakanoue no Iratsume and also found in the Man'yōshū.

In the first line, "mirume koso," "mirume" holds both the seaweed "miru" and "mirume," a chance to see one's beloved. The particle "koso" is answered by the perfective form "narame" in the third line, which leads on with a concessive turn.
The second line, "irinuru iso no," means "of the rocky shore sunk beneath the rising tide," taken unchanged from the second line of the source poem.
The third line, "kusa narame," means "may well be weeds," the conjectural "mu" in the form "me" answering "koso." The speaker concedes for a moment that, like the shore weeds of the source poem, chances to meet are bound to be few.
In the fourth line, "sode sae nami no," "sae" means "on top of that, even," adding the sleeves to the lack of meetings. The "waves" are tears, drawn in by association with the shore. Poem 1091 in this book also plays on "mirume" to speak of tears, sharing this use of seaside words for the tears of unrequited love.
The last line, "shita ni kuchinuru," means "have rotted beneath," ending on the attributive form to leave a lingering sigh. Where the source poem only grieves that meetings are few, this poem carries the grief further, to sleeves rotted by tears.
Author: Nijoin no Sanuki
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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