Akiyama no ko no shitagakuri yuku mizu no ware koso masame mioomoi yori wa

秋山の木の下隠り行く水の
我れこそ益さめ御思ひよりは

Roma-ji: Akiyama no ko no shitagakuri yuku mizu no ware koso masame mioomoi yori wa
English Translation: Like water that flows
hidden beneath the trees
of the autumn hills,
it is my love that runs deeper
than any thoughts of yours, my lord.
Meaning: Like the water that flows hidden beneath the trees of the autumn hills and swells as it goes, it is my love that runs deeper than yours, my lord.
Commentary: Book Two Love Poems 92

Headnote: "A poem offered by Princess Kagami in reply"
Answering Emperor Tenji's poem, Princess Kagami replies that, like water flowing hidden beneath the trees, her love, though unseen, runs deeper than his.
Where the Emperor's poem wished to see her house, she answers with an unseen stream of water, reversing the relation between the one who looks and the one who loves where no eye can see.
The author, Princess Kagami, is of uncertain parentage; one theory makes her the elder sister of Princess Nukata. She is said to have later become the wife of Fujiwara no Kamatari.

The first line, "akiyama no," presents the hills in autumn color and leads to the water beneath their trees. Autumn hills also appear in this book in 106 by Princess Ōku and in 137 and 208 by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro.
The second line, "ko no shitagakuri," means hidden beneath the trees. It depicts a stream invisible from outside and overlays a love that does not show itself.
The preface runs through the third line, "yuku mizu no," and from the idea of rising water leads to masame, "will be greater."
In the fourth line, "ware koso masame," koso is a binding particle that concludes in me, the perfective form of mu. It means: it is surely I whose love is greater.
The final line, "mioomoi yori wa," adds an honorific to the Emperor's feelings and, by inversion, names the object of comparison at the very end.
Author: Princess Kagami
Source: Manyoshu
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