Wata no soko oki o fukamete ouru mo no motomo ima koso koi wa subenaki

海の底奥を深めて生ふる藻の
もとも今こそ恋はすべなき

Roma-ji: Wata no soko oki o fukamete ouru mo no motomo ima koso koi wa subenaki
English Translation: On the ocean floor,
deep within the far offing,
the seaweed grows thick;
so before, but now indeed
love is past all remedy
Meaning: Like the seaweed growing deep offshore on the ocean floor, it was so before, but now indeed love is beyond all remedy.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2781

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
Love was painful before, but now, the speaker laments, it is past all bearing. Calling up seaweed that grows deep offshore also hints at the depth of the feelings of love.
Following the preceding poem, it is another poem on seaweed, the view shifting from weed swaying on the waves to weed growing deep on the ocean floor. The device of carrying the words forward through the same sound, from "mo" (seaweed) to "motomo," is used here.
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, "wata no soko": "the floor of the sea." The phrase is also used as a pillow word attaching to "oki" (the offing), and here it leads on to "oki."
Second line, "oki o fukamete": "deep in the offing." "Oki" is the open sea, showing deep water.
Third line, "ouru mo no": "of the seaweed that grows." The first three lines form a preface that leads, through the sound "mo," into "motomo."
Fourth line, "motomo ima koso": "so before, but now indeed." The particle "koso" is answered by the attributive "subenaki" in the last line.
Fifth line, "koi wa subenaki": "love is beyond remedy." "Subenashi" means to have no means, and taking up "koso" it ends in the attributive form, showing an Old Japanese pattern of kakari-musubi.
Source: Manyoshu
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