Iro ni idete koiba hito mite shirinu beshi kokoro no uchi no komorizuma wa mo

色に出でて恋ひば人見て知りぬべし
心のうちの隠り妻はも

Roma-ji: Iro ni idete koiba hito mite shirinu beshi kokoro no uchi no komorizuma wa mo
English Translation: If my love should show
in my face, then others seeing
would surely come to know,
you who are within my heart,
my hidden wife, oh my love
Meaning: If I let my love show in my face, others would see it and surely know. Oh, my hidden wife, kept within my heart.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2566

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing One's Feelings Directly"
If longing showed in the speaker's face, others would know, so he must keep it locked in his heart: so speaks this poem to his hidden wife. Carrying a love that must not be known, it conveys the pain of not being able to show his feelings, and his love for his wife all the same.
The first half gives the reason for fearing people's eyes, and the second half closes with a call to the wife hidden in his heart. The fear of gossip and watching eyes seen in the preceding poems appears here as the inability even to let feelings show in one's face, linking this poem of secret love with those before it.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather love poems by people whose names have not come down to us.

First line, "iro ni idete": "letting it show in my face." "Iro" means expression or appearance, and the line has six syllables, one more than the norm.
Second line, "koiba hito mite": "if I loved openly, people seeing." "Koiba" is the irrealis form with "ba," a hypothetical condition.
Third line, "shirinu beshi": "would surely know." The perfective "nu" and conjectural "beshi" together express certainty, and the poem breaks after the third line.
Fourth line, "kokoro no uchi no": "within my heart," expressing what is kept hidden from others.
Fifth line, "komorizuma wa mo": "oh, my hidden wife." "Komorizuma" is a wife met in secret, and the final particle "wa mo" adds deep feeling to the noun, closing the poem.
Source: Manyoshu
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