Waga seko ni a ga kouraku wa natsukusa no karisokuredomo oishiku gotoshi

我が背子に我が恋ふらくは夏草の
刈り除くれども生ひしくごとし

Roma-ji: Waga seko ni a ga kouraku wa natsukusa no karisokuredomo oishiku gotoshi
English Translation: The love I feel for
you, my dearest, is like
the grasses of summer:
though I cut and clear them all,
they grow back again and again
Meaning: My love for you is like summer grass: however often I cut it away, it grows back again and again.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2769

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
A woman's love for her man, she says, is like summer grass that springs up again however often it is cut, never coming to an end however she tries to sever it. Likening a love that wells up no matter how it is held down to the vigorous life of summer grass gives the poem a true ring.
It is a poem on summer grass, comparing love to the grass not through a preface but through a direct simile with "gotoshi." By invoking an experience everyone knows from the summer fields, grass that grows back however often it is cut, it makes the helplessness of love feel close at hand.
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, "waga seko ni": "for my dear one." "Seko" is a woman's affectionate word for her husband or lover, marking the poem as a woman's.
Second line, "a ga kouraku wa": "my loving." "Kouraku" is the ku-nominalization of "kou" (to love), gathering the act of loving into a noun-like theme.
Third line, "natsukusa no": "of summer grass," which grows thick in summer. From here to the last line runs the simile for love.
Fourth line, "karisokuredomo": "though I cut and clear it away." "Karisoku" means to cut and remove, and "domo" marks a concessive condition.
Fifth line, "oishiku gotoshi": "it is like growing back again and again." "Oishiku" means to spring up one after another, and "gotoshi" completes the simile, expressing an endless love.
Source: Manyoshu
Prev Poem: Ashitazu no sawaku irie no shirasuge no shirasemu tame to kochitakaru kamo
Next Poem: Michi no he no itsushibahara no itsumo itsumo hito no yurusamu koto o shi matamu