Ashitazu no sawaku irie no shirasuge no shirasemu tame to kochitakaru kamo

葦鶴の騒く入江の白菅の
知らせむためと言痛かるかも

Roma-ji: Ashitazu no sawaku irie no shirasuge no shirasemu tame to kochitakaru kamo
English Translation: Like the white sedges
in the inlet where the cranes
among the reeds clamor,
as if to make it all known,
how loudly the gossip spreads
Meaning: Like the white sedge in the inlet where cranes clamor among the reeds, the gossip rises so loudly, as if meant to make our love known to all.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2768

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
The poem laments how loudly people gossip, as though meaning to make the lovers' affair known to the world. Over the scene of cranes clamoring in the inlet is laid the image of people clamoring with rumor, and the burden of a world that censures love comes through vividly.
It is a poem on the white sedge growing in an inlet. Where the preceding poem resolved to show love openly, this one speaks of the vexation of rumors about a love already widely known, so poems about love and the eyes of others stand side by side.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather the love poems of people whose names have not come down to us.

First line, "ashitazu no": "cranes among the reeds." It pictures the birds of the waterside and leads into the scene of the inlet.
Second line, "sawaku irie no": "of the inlet where they clamor." "Sawaku" was read unvoiced in Old Japanese, and the line also suggests a world abuzz with gossip.
Third line, "shirasuge no": "of the white sedge" growing in the inlet. The first three lines form a preface that leads, through the repeated sound "shira," into "shirasemu."
Fourth line, "shirasemu tame to": "as if to make it known." The auxiliary "mu" expresses intention, conveying the sense that the gossip spreads as if deliberately to announce the affair.
Fifth line, "kochitakaru kamo": "how vexing the gossip is." "Kochitashi" is an adjective for rumor that is painfully troublesome, and "kamo" is an exclamatory particle.
Source: Manyoshu
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