Mitsumitsushi Kume no wakugo ga ifurekemu iso no kusane no karemaku oshi mo

みつみつし久米の若子がい触れけむ
磯の草根の枯れまく惜しも

Roma-ji: Mitsumitsushi Kume no wakugo ga ifurekemu iso no kusane no karemaku oshi mo
English Translation: Mighty in his strength,
Kume's young lord, they say,
once laid hands upon
the grasses of the rocky shore—
how sad it is they wither!
Meaning: The grasses on the rocky shore that Kume's young lord must once have touched—how sad that they should wither!
Commentary: Book Three Elegies 435

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Four poems composed in grief by Kawabe no Miyahito on seeing the body of a beautiful woman in the pine grove of Himeshima in Wadō 4, the year kanoto-i"
This is the second of Kawabe no Miyahito's four poems. He grieves that the grasses on the rocky shore, which the legendary Kume no Wakugo is said to have touched, are withering. It is also read as mourning the dead girl, overlaying the loss of a young and beautiful life with the withering of the shore grass. The monk Hakutsū's poem 307 in this book also sings of Kume no Wakugo.
Kawabe no Miyahito's four poems form a sequence composed in deep grief upon seeing the body of a young woman in the pine grove of Himeshima in Settsu in Wadō 4 (711). Himeshima is thought to be in present-day Nishiyodogawa Ward, Osaka. The left note to the fourth poem says that the date, the place, and the author's name have already appeared earlier (meaning poems 228 and 229 of Book Two), but since the wording differs and it is hard to tell which is right, the poems are recorded here again.
The poet, Kawabe no Miyahito, lived in the early Nara period, but little is known of him.

First line "Mighty in his strength": mitsumitsushi is a pillow word for Kume.
Second line "Kume's young lord": a legendary youth, the same as the second line of poem 307.
Third line "once laid hands upon": i is a prefix and kemu past conjecture.
Fourth line "the grasses of the rocky shore": kusane means grass, ne being a suffix.
Fifth line "how sad it is they wither": maku is the nominal form of mu, "that they will wither."
Author: Kawabe no Miyahito
Source: Manyoshu
Prev Poem: Kazahaya no Miho no urami no shiratsutsuji miredomo sabushi naki hito omoeba
Next Poem: Hitogoto no shigeki kono koro tama naraba te ni makimochite koizu aramashi o