Koi seji to Mitarashigawa ni seshi misogi kami wa ukezu zo narinikerashi mo - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

恋せじと御手洗川にせし禊
神は受けずぞなりにけらしも

Roma-ji: Koi seji to Mitarashigawa ni seshi misogi kami wa ukezu zo narinikerashi mo
English Translation: Vowing to love no more
I purified myself
in Mitarashi's stream
yet it seems the gods, it turns out
would not accept my rite
Meaning: Vowing to love no more, I performed a rite of purification in the Mitarashi River, but it seems the gods would not accept it.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems I 501

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
Seeking release from the pain of love, the poet vowed to love no more and performed a purification rite, but laments that the gods seem not to have granted the wish. The persistence of love even after purification is expressed with gentle humor as the gods' refusal of the offering. The poem also appears, with slightly altered wording in the lower verse, in section 65 of The Tales of Ise.

First line, "Vowing to love no more": koi seji to means "I will love no more," with ji expressing negative intention.
Second line, "in Mitarashi's stream": the Mitarashi River flows near a shrine, where worshippers wash their hands and rinse their mouths to purify themselves.
Third line, "I purified myself": seshi misogi, the purification I performed. Misogi is a rite of cleansing the body in river water to remove sin and defilement, here performed as a prayer to end love.
Fourth line, "yet it seems the gods, it turns out": kami wa ukezu zo means "the gods did not accept," with zo an emphatic particle.
Fifth line, "would not accept my rite": kerashi is an auxiliary of grounded inference about the past, and mo expresses exclamation, meaning "it seems the gods did not accept it."
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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