Itazura ni oinu beranari Ōaraki no mori no shita naru kusaba naranedo - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

いたづらに老いぬべらなり大荒木の
森の下なる草葉ならねど

Roma-ji: Itazura ni oinu beranari Ōaraki no mori no shita naru kusaba naranedo
English Translation: All to no purpose
it seems I will grow old,
though I am not the grass
that grows beneath the forest
of Ōaraki's woods.
Meaning: It seems I am bound to grow old to no purpose, though I am not the grass growing beneath the forest of Ōaraki.
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Spring Poems 1081

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poet laments that he seems bound to grow old in vain, though he is not the grass beneath the forest of Ōaraki. Drawing on the Kokinshū poem "Ōaraki no mori no shitakusa oinureba koma mo susamezu karu hito mo nashi," it laments his own aging, unregarded by anyone, like the undergrowth grown so old that no horse will eat it and no one will cut it.
This is the closing poem of the book. Where the opening poem, 1000, began to sing of age along with the joy of spring, "oi zo soikeru," this closing poem ends on the lament of age, "itazura ni oinu beranari," and the beginning and end of the book answer each other through the same poet's poems of age.
The author, Ōshikōchi no Mitsune, was one of the compilers of the Kokinshū and is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "itazura ni," means "in vain," sharing the same word with the third line of 1001 in this book, "itazura ni."
Second line, "oinu beranari," means "I seem bound to grow old," with "nu" perfective and "beranari" conjectural. The poem breaks after this second line, and it answers, through the lament of age, the final line of the opening poem, 1000, "oi zo soikeru."
Third line, "Ōaraki no," means "of Ōaraki," a hypermetric line of six syllables.
Fourth line, "mori no shita naru," means "growing beneath the forest."
Final line, "kusaba naranedo," means "though I am not the grass," with "ne" the perfective form of the negative "zu" and "do" a concessive particle. It echoes the fourth line of 1078 in this book, "kusa no ha goto ni," in singing of grass.
Author: Oshikochi no Mitsune
Source: Shui Wakashu
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