Komorido no sawaizumi naru iwagane mo tōshite zo omou a ga kōraku wa

隠りどの沢泉なる岩が根も
通してぞ思ふ我が恋ふらくは

Roma-ji: Komorido no sawaizumi naru iwagane mo tōshite zo omou a ga kōraku wa
English Translation: Even the rock roots
by the spring within the marsh,
hidden from all eyes,
my thoughts would pierce right through them,
such is this love that I feel
Meaning: Even the roots of the rock beside the spring in a hidden marsh, my thoughts would pierce right through; such is the love I feel.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2443

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
Even the hard roots of the rock deep in a spring in an unseen marsh the speaker's love would pierce clean through: so the poem declares the single-mindedness of his love. Invoking a firm rock in a hidden place, it expresses the force of a love that is secret yet fierce.
Following the preceding poem, 2442, which sang of a love that does not run out though the great earth be taken, this poem sings of a love that pierces even the roots of rock. In these two poems, earth and stone, things hard and vast, become the measure of the depth and strength of love, and the next poem, 2444, continues with stone through the everlasting rock of Mount Ishie.
The author is unknown; according to the left note, the poem comes from the Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection. That collection is thought to contain both Hitomaro's own poems and poems by others that he recorded. Kakinomoto no Hitomaro was a court poet active in the reigns of Empress Jito and Emperor Monmu, and is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "komorido no": "of a hidden place," its secrecy overlapping with the speaker's unknown love.
Second line, "sawaizumi naru": "in the spring of the marsh." "Naru" is the attributive form of the auxiliary "nari," expressing location.
Third line, "iwagane mo": "even the rock roots," meaning a hard rock set deep in the ground. The particle "mo" carries the sense "even something so hard."
Fourth line, "tōshite zo omou": "I love so as to pierce through." The verb "omou" closes in the attributive form in concord with "zo," and the poem breaks after this fourth line.
Fifth line, "a ga kōraku wa": "this love of mine." "Kōraku" is the ku form of the verb "kou," and the subject of the fourth line is placed after it in inversion.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection
Source: Manyoshu
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