Ōmi no umi shizuku shiratama shirazu shite koi seshi yori wa ima koso masare

近江の海沈く白玉知らずして
恋ひせしよりは今こそまされ

Roma-ji: Ōmi no umi shizuku shiratama shirazu shite koi seshi yori wa ima koso masare
English Translation: White jewels sunk deep
in the waters of Omi's sea:
when I knew you not
and loved you, it was less than
the love I feel for you now
Meaning: Like the white jewels sunk in the Sea of Omi: more than when I loved you without knowing you, now it is that my love is greater.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2445

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
More than when he loved without truly knowing her, the speaker finds that now, having met and come to know her, his longing has grown even stronger. With the white jewels sunk at the bottom of the Sea of Omi as a preface, the poem shows a deepening love for a beautiful beloved suggested by those jewels.
Poems beginning "the Sea of Omi" appear also as this book's poems 2435, 2439, and 2440; poem 2435 in particular shares with this one the device of leading by sound to "not knowing," there from "white waves" and here from "white jewels." The "white jewels" of this poem also open a run of poems on white jewels continuing into the next poems, 2446 and 2447.
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, "omi no umi": the Sea of Omi, that is, Lake Biwa. The line has six syllables, one more than the norm.
Second line, "shizuku shiratama": "white jewels sunk beneath the water." The lines up to here form a preface that leads, through the sound of shira, "white," to "not knowing" in the third line.
Third line, "shirazu shite": "without knowing," referring to the time before meeting, when the speaker did not truly know the beloved.
Fourth line, "koi seshi yori wa": "than when I loved." The attributive "shi" of the past auxiliary "ki" looks back on the love of the past.
Fifth line, "ima koso masare": "it is now that it is greater." The particle "koso" is answered by "masare," the perfective form of "masaru," in a concord.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection
Source: Manyoshu
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