Nagekazu yo ima hata onaji natorigawa seze no umoregi kuchihatenu tomo - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

嘆かずよ今はた同じなとり川
瀬々の埋もれ木朽ち果てぬとも

Roma-ji: Nagekazu yo ima hata onaji natorigawa seze no umoregi kuchihatenu tomo
English Translation: I will not grieve, no:
now it is all the same, like
Natori River,
though I rot away and end,
buried wood beneath the shoals.
Meaning: I will grieve no more. Now that my name is on everyone's lips, it is all the same, even if I rot away like the buried wood in the shoals of the Natori River.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 1119

Headnote: "At the Poetry Contest in Fifteen Hundred Rounds."
This is the second of two poems on love linked to the buried wood of the Natori River. The speaker will grieve no more: now that rumor has spread it is all the same, even if he rots away like the buried wood in the Natori's shoals. According to the headnote, it was composed for the Poetry Contest in Fifteen Hundred Rounds.
The author, "Regent and Grand Chancellor," is Fujiwara no Yoshitsune. The son of Regent Kujō Kanezane, he rose to regent and grand chancellor and wrote the kana preface to the Shin Kokinshū.
Like the preceding poem, it takes as its source the Kokinshū poem, "Buried wood in the shoals of the Natori River, if it came to light, what would we do? Why did we begin to meet?", and in its second line it takes "ima hata onaji" from Prince Motoyoshi's Gosenshū poem, "Now that I despair, it is all the same: at Naniwa, I will meet you though it cost my life."

The first line, "nagekazu yo," means "I will not grieve," and the poem breaks after the first line. Taking up the preceding poem's wish to rot away, it declares that even if he rots, he will not grieve.
The second line, "ima hata onaji," means "now it is all the same," a phrase taken from Prince Motoyoshi's poem, with "hata" meaning "after all."
In the third line, "natorigawa," "natori" holds both "na toru," to have rumor spread, and the place-name Natori River. It is the same word as in the third line of the preceding poem.
The fourth line, "seze no umoregi," is the same as the last line of the preceding poem. Moved from the last line there to the fourth line here, it sets the two poems side by side through the same image.
The last line, "kuchihatenu tomo," means "even if I rot away," with "tomo" a concessive. Where the preceding poem's "kuchi dani hatene" wished to rot away, this poem resigns itself not to grieve even in rotting, and the two poems form a pair. Through inversion it returns to "nagekazu yo" in the first line.
Author: Fujiwara no Yoshitsune
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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