Karehatemu nochi oba shirade natsukusa no fukaku mo hito no omōyuru kana - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

かれはてむ後をば知らで夏草の
深くも人の思ほゆるかな

Roma-ji: Karehatemu nochi oba shirade natsukusa no fukaku mo hito no omōyuru kana
English Translation: Knowing not the day
when all will wither and part,
like the summer grass
so deep and thick is the love
I find myself feeling for you.
Meaning: Not knowing that it will all wither away and we will drift apart, I think of you as deeply as the summer grass grows thick.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 686

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
While loving someone as deeply as the summer grass grows thick, the speaker foresees that, as grass withers, the relationship will one day fall apart. The poem shows a clear-eyed gaze that sees the shadow of the end in the very height of love.
The idea of pairing the withering ("kare") of grass with the parting ("kare") of lovers also appears in "kareyuku kimi" in 704 and "karenu beranari" in 716 of this book, recurring as a way of overlaying love's decline with the withering of plants.
The author, "Ōshikōchi Mitsune," is Ōshikōchi no Mitsune. One of the compilers of the Kokinshū, he served as junior clerk of Kai and senior secretary of Izumi, and is one of the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

The first line, "karehatemu," means "will wither away entirely," with "kare" a pivot word joining the withering of grass and the drifting apart of lovers.
The second line, "nochi oba shirade," means "not knowing what will come after," "de" being a negative connective.
The third line, "natsukusa no," refers to thick summer grass; it leads to "fukaku" in the fourth line and is an associated word with "kare" in the first.
The fourth line, "fukaku mo hito no," overlays the depth of the summer grass with the depth of the speaker's love.
The final line, "omōyuru kana," means "how I find myself thinking of you," closing with the exclamatory "kana."
Author: Oshikochi no Mitsune
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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