Asaji ouru nobe ya karuramu yamagatsu no kakiho no kusa wa iro mo kawarazu - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

浅茅生ふる野辺やかるらむ山賤の
垣ほの草は色も変はらず

Roma-ji: Asaji ouru nobe ya karuramu yamagatsu no kakiho no kusa wa iro mo kawarazu
English Translation: Is it that moorland
where the cogon grass grows thick
that withers away?
The grass by the rustic's fence
has not changed its color yet.
Meaning: Surely it is the moor overgrown with cogon grass that withers and draws away; the grass by this humble mountain dweller's fence has not changed its color at all.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 1245

Headnote: "Reply."
This is the fifth poem of the sequence lamenting estrangement through images of autumn and winter, a reply to the preceding poem. Surely it is the moor of cogon grass that withers, she answers; the grass by the rustic's fence has not changed its color.
The author is given as "Anonymous," and the name has not come down to us. This is the person to whom Emperor Daigo sent the preceding poem.

The first line, "asaji ouru," means "where the low cogon grass grows." Taking up "the grass of the moor" from the preceding poem, it recasts it as a desolate field.
In the second line, "nobe ya karuramu," "karu" is a pivot word meaning both grass "withering" and a person "drawing away." Answering "karemasaruramu," the last line of the preceding poem, with the same word, she retorts that it is surely he who is drawing away. The poem breaks after the second line.
The third line, "yamagatsu no," means "of a humble mountain dweller," a self-deprecating term for the author.
The fourth line, "kakiho no kusa wa," is the grass growing by a fence, standing for the author herself. An anonymous poem in Love Poems IV of the Kokinshū, "How I long to see you, even now: wild pink blooming by a mountain dweller's fence," likewise sings of flowers by a rustic's fence.
The last line, "iro mo kawarazu," shows through the unchanged color of the grass that her heart has not changed. Turning the preceding poem's image of frost-withered grass against it, she closes by answering that she has not changed.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
Prev Poem: Shimo sayagu nobe no kusaba ni aranedomo nado ka hitome no karemasaruramu
Next Poem: Kasumuramu hodo o mo shirazu shiguretsutsu suginishi aki no momiji o zo miru