Waga koi wa miyamagakure no kusa nare ya shigesa masaredo shiru hito no naki - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

わが恋はみ山隠れの草なれや
しげさまされど知る人のなき

Roma-ji: Waga koi wa miyamagakure no kusa nare ya shigesa masaredo shiru hito no naki
English Translation: Is my love a grass
hidden deep within the hills,
that it grows ever
thicker, though there is no one
at all who knows of it?
Meaning: Is my love like grass hidden deep in the mountains? It grows ever thicker, yet no one knows of it.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 560

Headnote: "A poem from the poetry contest held at the residence of the Empress in the Kanpyō era"
The poet likens his love to grass growing in deep mountains beyond anyone's sight and laments that, though his feelings only grow, no one knows of them. The central metaphor overlays the thickening of grass with the intensity of love, expressing the loneliness of a hidden love. It was composed for the Kanpyō-era Empress's poetry contest and is placed within the run of poems from that contest.
Ono no Yoshiki was an official of the early Heian period and a grandson of Ono no Takamura. Rising from a student of letters, he became Senior Private Secretary and served as Provisional Assistant Governor of Shinano. He also excelled at Chinese poetry and prose.

First line, "waga koi wa": the particle wa presents the poet's own love as the topic, and a metaphor for it unfolds from here. Many poems in this book begin "waga koi wa," and 597 and 611 of this book open with the same first line.
Second line, "miyamagakure no": miyama is a deep mountain, and miyamagakure means being hidden deep within it, beyond anyone's view.
Third line, "kusa nare ya": nare ya is the perfective form with the interrogative ya, meaning "is it because it is grass?" Ya pairs with naki in the final line. The poem breaks here.
Fourth line, "shigesa masaredo": shigesa means both the thickness of grass and the intensity of love. Masaredo, "though it increases," leads to the last line with a concessive turn.
Fifth line, "shiru hito no naki": the attributive naki resolves ya. The deeper the feelings grow, the more striking the loneliness of their being known to no one.
Author: Ono no Yoshizai
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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