Akihagi no shitaba ni tsukete me ni chikaku yoso naru hito no kokoro o zo miru - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

秋萩の下葉につけて目に近く
よそなる人の心をぞ見る

Roma-ji: Akihagi no shitaba ni tsukete me ni chikaku yoso naru hito no kokoro o zo miru
English Translation: On the lower leaves
of the autumn bush clover,
near before my eyes,
the heart of one who keeps apart
is what I come to see.
Meaning: By these reddened lower leaves of autumn bush clover, I see the heart of one who is near before my eyes yet keeps so distant.
Commentary: Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Autumn Poems 1116

Headnote: "When she had come to stay at a house close by to avoid an unlucky direction, I heard on this occasion and that, from what I saw and heard, that she was one who composed poems, and though I thought I would like somehow to see how she composed, I was not greatly interested and did not think deeply of it, nor did I speak first; she too, it seems, thought to test me, and sent a poem attached to reddened bush clover leaves"
The poet says that, through the reddened lower leaves of autumn bush clover, she sees the heart of one who is so near yet keeps his distance. The headnote shows that a woman had come to stay at a nearby house to avoid an unlucky direction; hearing she was a poet, the writer wished to see how she composed but did not much care and did not speak first, whereupon she, thinking perhaps to test him, sent a poem tied to reddened bush clover leaves. Likening the bush clover, which reddens from its lower leaves, to the heart of one who is near yet will not open up, she tests the other's skill in poetry.
The next poem, 1117, is Ki no Tsurayuki's reply to this poem.
The author is given in the headnote only as "a woman," and her name is not known.

First line, "akihagi no," means "of the autumn bush clover," continuing the bush clover poems from the third line of the preceding poem, 1115, "hagi no hana."
Second line, "shitaba ni tsukete," means "tied to the lower leaves," or "by way of the lower leaves." It sings of the same lower leaves of bush clover as the fourth lines of 1118 and 1119 in this book, "hagi no shitaba wa."
Third line, "me ni chikaku," means "near before my eyes," referring to her staying at a nearby house to avoid an unlucky direction.
Fourth line, "yoso naru hito no," means "of one who keeps apart," pairing as distance against the nearness of the third line, "me ni chikaku."
Final line, "kokoro o zo miru," means "I see the heart," with the binding particle "zo" resolved by the attributive form "miru." It answers the final line of the next poem, 1117, "mieji to zo omou," as "see" against "will not be seen."
Source: Shui Wakashu
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