Aki kureba omoimidaruru karukaya no shitaba ya hito no kokoro naruran - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

秋来れば思ひ乱るる刈萱の
下葉や人の心なるらん

Roma-ji: Aki kureba omoimidaruru karukaya no shitaba ya hito no kokoro naruran
English Translation: When autumn comes
the kaya grass is tossed
like a troubled heart:
are its lower leaves, I wonder,
the hidden heart of man?
Meaning: When autumn comes, the kaya grass is tossed about like a heart in turmoil. Could its lower leaves be the hidden heart of a person?
Commentary: Book Four Autumn Poems I 242

Headnote: "Composed on kaya grass when presenting a hundred-poem sequence in the reign of Emperor Horikawa"
Composed on "kaya grass" for the Horikawa Hundred-Poem Sequence. When autumn comes, the kaya grass, tossed and tangled, looks just like a person whose thoughts are in turmoil, and the poet wonders whether its lower leaves are the feelings hidden deep in the human heart. Overlaying the heart on a grass sung of as something tangled, he entrusts autumn brooding to the lower leaves unseen from outside.
The author, "Major Counselor Moroyori," is Minamoto no Moroyori, son of Minister of the Left Minamoto no Toshifusa, who rose to Major Counselor. He was one of the poets of the Horikawa Hundred-Poem Sequence.
From this poem through 246, with the flowering pampas grass of 245 in between, poems on kaya grass follow one another. Poems 243 and 246 both end with "nobe no karukaya," the kaya grass of the fields, and 244 with "noji no karukaya."

First line, "aki kureba": "when autumn comes." Poem 257 of this book opens with the same line.
Second line, "omoimidaruru": "tossed in troubled thought," overlaying the tangled grass with the turmoil of the heart.
Third line, "karukaya no": "karukaya" is a grass sung of for the way it tangles and sways.
Fourth line, "shitaba ya hito no": "shitaba" are the lower leaves, a figure for feelings deep in the heart. The interrogative "ya" links with "ran" in the last line.
Fifth line, "kokoro naruran": "ran," the attributive of present conjecture, closes with "ya," seeing the lower leaves of the grass as the human heart.
Author: Minamoto no Moroyori
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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