Shirurame ya ko no ha furishiku tanimizu no iwama ni morasu shita no kokoro o - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

知るらめや木の葉降りしく谷水の
岩間に漏らす下の心を

Roma-ji: Shirurame ya ko no ha furishiku tanimizu no iwama ni morasu shita no kokoro o
English Translation: Could she ever know?
As the stream beneath the leaves
fallen in the gorge
leaks out between the rocks,
so leaks my hidden heart.
Meaning: Could she know it? No, she could not: the heart hidden deep within me that I let seep out, as the valley stream beneath a bed of fallen leaves seeps out between the rocks.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 1086

Headnote: "On the idea of 'Hidden Love.'"
This is the first poem of a sequence on hidden love that turns on "letting slip" a heart that must not be known. The speaker says the beloved cannot know the heart that seeps out ever so slightly, like a valley stream seeping beneath the fallen leaves. According to the headnote, it was composed on the topic "Hidden Love."
The author, "Former Grand Chancellor," is a title for one who has resigned the office of grand chancellor, and there is no settled view of whom it refers to here.

The first line, "shirurame ya," means "could she know? no, she could not," the perfective form "rame" of the present conjectural "ramu" joined to the rhetorical "ya." The poem breaks after the first line, first lamenting a love that does not reach its object, and through inversion it runs on to "shita no kokoro o" in the last line.
The second line, "ko no ha furishiku," means "where leaves have fallen thick." Poem 1128 in this book uses the same line, where the fallen leaves cover a path no visitor walks.
The third line, "tanimizu no," means "of the valley stream"; the stream hidden under leaves becomes a figure for a love kept from others' eyes.
The fourth line, "iwama ni morasu," layers water seeping between the rocks with the heart letting its feelings slip. With "morasu na yo" in the next poem and "morasaba ya" in 1089, the word "morasu" runs through the sequence.
In the last line, "shita no kokoro o," "shita" means both beneath the leaves and the depths of a heart that does not show itself. As with "shitamoe" in poem 1081 of this book, the word "shita" expresses the heart kept out of sight.
Author: The Former Chancellor
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
Prev Poem: Kimi kou to narumi no ura no hamahisagi shiorete nomi mo toshi o furu kana
Next Poem: Morasu na yo kumo iru mine no hatsushigure ko no ha wa shita ni iro kawaru tomo