Kasugano no odoro no michi no umoremizu sue dani kami no shirushi arawase - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

春日野のおどろの道の埋れ水
末だに神のしるし顕はせ

Roma-ji: Kasugano no odoro no michi no umoremizu sue dani kami no shirushi arawase
English Translation: On Kasuga Plain,
along the bramble-tangled path,
a buried stream—
if only for what comes after,
O god, reveal your sign.
Meaning: I am like water buried along the bramble-choked path of Kasuga Plain; if only for those who come after, O god, reveal your sign.
Commentary: Book Nineteen Poems on the Gods 1898

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On the gods, when a hundred-poem sequence was composed at his house."
This is the fourth poem in the sequence on the Kasuga Shrine. Though the poet is like water buried along the bramble path of Kasuga Plain, he prays that the god will at least reveal a sign for what comes after. Like the preceding poem, it was composed on the topic of the gods for the hundred-poem sequence at the house of Kujō Kanezane. Likening his own obscure lot to buried water, he prays for the god's protection of the future.
In this text the author's name, "Kōtaigōgū no Daibu Toshinari," is written in the position of the headnote. It is treated here as the author's name, and the headnote is taken as continuing from the preceding poem.
The author, "Kōtaigōgū no Daibu Toshinari," Master of the Empress Dowager's Household, is Fujiwara no Shunzei. He was the father of Fujiwara no Teika and compiled the Senzai Wakashū.
"Sue," "the end," is understood to mean descendants, and the poem is read as a prayer for the god's protection over the future of his son Teika and others.

The first line, "Kasugano no," is the plain spreading around the Kasuga Shrine in Nara.
The second line, "odoro no michi no," means "of the path overgrown with brambles."
The third line, "umoremizu," is water flowing unseen, buried under grasses, a figure for the author himself sunk in obscurity.
The fourth line, "sue dani kami no," means "if only for the end, the god's." "Sue" overlays the lower reaches of the stream with descendants and the future. The particle "dani" marks a minimal wish.
The last line, "shirushi arawase," means "reveal your sign," a plea to the god in the imperative. Following the lament "tanomu kata naki mi" in the preceding poem, two poems from the same hundred-poem sequence stand together.
Author: Fujiwara no Shunzei
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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