Minato ashi ni majireru kusa no shirikusa no hito mina shirinu waga shitamoi wa

港葦に交じれる草のしり草の
人皆知りぬ我が下思ひは

Roma-ji: Minato ashi ni majireru kusa no shirikusa no hito mina shirinu waga shitamoi wa
English Translation: Among the harbor reeds,
mingled there, the grass that grows,
the knowing-grass, lo,
everyone has come to know
the love I hid within my heart
Meaning: Like the knowing-grass that grows mingled among the reeds at the harbor mouth, everyone has come to know it: the love I kept hidden in my heart.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2468

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
Drawing on the name of the shirikusa, a grass that grows among the reeds at the harbor mouth, to call up the word "shiri" (to know), this poem laments that a love kept secret in the heart has become known to everyone. It conveys, through a waterside grass, the dismay of seeing hidden feelings exposed.
This is one of the poems "Expressing Feelings through Things," a love poem set upon a grass. The same technique of using a plant's name as a preface to lead into the main statement appears in poem 2480 of this book, whose fourth line is likewise "hito mina shirinu." The two form a pair, treating the same theme of a love that others come to know through two different plants, the knowing-grass and the ichishi flower.
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, "minato ashi ni": reeds growing at a river mouth or where waters flow in and out. The original script writes "lake reeds," read here as "minato ashi."
Second line, "majireru kusa no": "the grass mingled among them." "Ru" is the attributive form of the continuative auxiliary "ri."
Third line, "shirikusa no": the name of a waterside grass. The first three lines form a preface, whose repeated sound "shiri" leads into the following "shiri" (know).
Fourth line, "hito mina shirinu": "everyone has come to know." "Nu" is a perfective auxiliary; the poem pauses here, and the subject "waga shitamoi wa" follows in inverted order.
Fifth line, "waga shitamoi wa": "the love I hid within my heart." Through the inversion, the exposed feeling is revealed only at the end, deepening the lament.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection
Source: Manyoshu
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