Sumiyoshi no koiwasuregusa tane taete naki yo ni aeru ware zo kanashiki - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

住吉の恋忘れ草種絶えて
なき世に逢へる我ぞ悲しき

Roma-ji: Sumiyoshi no koiwasuregusa tane taete naki yo ni aeru ware zo kanashiki
English Translation: At Sumiyoshi
the grass that makes one forget love
has died to the seed;
born into such a world,
how sorrowful I am
Meaning: The love-forgetting grass of Sumiyoshi has died out to its very seed, and how sad I am to be born into a world without it.
Commentary: Book Fifteen Love Poems V 1420

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the second poem of the sequence on unforgettable longing. Born into a world where even the love-forgetting grass of Sumiyoshi has died out, the speaker laments being unable to forget love. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Fujiwara no Motozane," was a poet of the mid-Heian period and one of the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets. His rank rose no higher than Junior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade.
Sumiyoshi is a poetic site in Settsu Province, present-day Sumiyoshi Ward, Osaka. On its shore grew, it was said, the love-forgetting grass, sung also in a poem by Ki no Tsurayuki in the Kokinshū: "Suminoe no / kishi ni ou chō / koiwasuregusa."

The first line, "Sumiyoshi no," names the poetic site where the love-forgetting grass grows.
The second line, "koiwasuregusa," is a plant said to make one forget love if worn, identified with the day lily.
The third line, "tane taete," means "its seed died out." It says there is no longer any means of forgetting love.
The fourth line, "naki yo ni aeru," means "born into a world without it."
The last line, "ware zo kanashiki," closes the kakari-musubi of "zo" with the attributive "kanashiki." Where the preceding poem asked the other at least to keep him in mind, this one laments that he himself cannot forget, singing from the side of unforgettable longing.
Author: Fujiwara no Motozane
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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