Hitogoto wa natsuno no kusa no shigeku tomo kimi to ware to shi tazusawarinaba - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

人言は夏野の草の繁くとも
君と我とし携はりなば

Roma-ji: Hitogoto wa natsuno no kusa no shigeku tomo kimi to ware to shi tazusawarinaba
English Translation: Though people's gossip
like the grass of summer fields
should grow thick and rank,
if only you and I
stay together hand in hand.
Meaning: Let people's gossip grow as thick as summer grass; it does not matter, so long as you and I go hand in hand.
Commentary: Book Thirteen Love Poems III 827

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
The poem says that though people's gossip grows as thick as the grass of summer fields, it does not matter so long as you and I go hand in hand. Paying no heed to the world's chatter, thick as the rank summer grass, it sings of a strong conviction that the bond between the two is all that matters.
The author, "Hitomaro," is Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, a court poet of the Asuka period revered as the sage of poetry and the foremost poet of the Man'yōshū, and one of the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets. Many Man'yōshū poems are included in the Shūishū under Hitomaro's name.

First line, "hitogoto wa," means "people's gossip."
Second line, "natsuno no kusa no," means "like the grass growing in summer fields," a figure for the abundance of gossip. It shares the thick growth of summer fields with "no mo yama mo shigeriainuru natsu" in the next poem, 828.
Third line, "shigeku tomo," means "even if it grows thick," with "tomo" a concessive supposition.
Fourth line, "kimi to ware to shi," means "you and I," with "shi" an emphatic particle.
Final line, "tazusawarinaba," means "if we go hand in hand," with the sense "it does not matter" left unsaid.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Source: Shui Wakashu
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