Hanasusuki ware koso shita ni omoishika ho ni idete hito ni musubare ni keri - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

花すすき我こそ下に思ひしか
ほに出でて人に結ばれにけり

Roma-ji: Hanasusuki ware koso shita ni omoishika ho ni idete hito ni musubare ni keri
English Translation: Like plumed pampas grass
it was I who deep below
kept these thoughts of love,
but you came forth in full plume
and now are bound to another
Meaning: Like pampas grass, I was the one who loved you in secret, deep in my heart, yet you came out into the open like a plume of grass and are now bound to someone else.
Commentary: Book Fifteen Love Poems V 748

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
The poem laments that the person he secretly loved has openly married another, likening it to pampas grass that puts out plumes and is tied into knots. There is irony in that her tie to another came into the open before his own love did.
The author, "Fujiwara no Nakahira no Ason," is Fujiwara no Nakahira, second son of the regent Fujiwara no Mototsune, with Tokihira as his elder brother and Tadahira as his younger. He rose to Minister of the Left and was called the Biwa Minister of the Left. He is known to have had a love affair with the poet Ise.

The first line names pampas grass in plume. The base of the grass before the plumes emerge becomes "below," and the image of plumes knotted together leads into the second half; it is the central metaphor of the poem.
In the second line the particle koso stresses "I," resolved by shika in the third line. Shita ni means "secretly within," with a hint of the lower leaves of the grass.
The third line ends with shika, the perfective form of the past auxiliary ki, resolving koso. The koso construction turns concessive, "I loved you, and yet," flowing on into the lower verse.
In the fourth line ho is a pivot word, meaning both the plume of the grass and coming into the open. The line is hypermetric and contrasts with the hidden "below."
The last line joins tying the plumes of grass with a man and woman binding their vows, an associated word for "plume." Ni keri expresses completion and realization: it has already happened.
Author: Fujiwara no Nakahira
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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