Naniwae no mo ni uzumoruru tamagashiwa arawarete dani hito o koibaya - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

難波江の藻に埋もるる玉柏
あらはれてだに人を恋ひばや

Roma-ji: Naniwae no mo ni uzumoruru tamagashiwa arawarete dani hito o koibaya
English Translation: Like the jewel-oak
buried in the water weed
of Naniwa Bay,
if only, risen to the light,
I might love her openly
Meaning: Not like the jewel-oak buried in the seaweed of Naniwa Bay, hidden from every eye, but at least risen to the surface, I wish I could love her openly.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems I 641

Headnote: "Composed on the topic 'The Beginning of Love' when hundred-poem sequences were presented in the reign of Emperor Horikawa"
Composed on the topic "The beginning of love" when hundred-poem sequences were presented in the reign of Emperor Horikawa. Not like the jewel-oak buried among the seaweed of Naniwa Bay, unknown to anyone, he says, but at least risen to the surface, I wish I could love. The first three lines are a preface leading to "arawarete," "coming to the surface," and the jewel-oak hidden in the weed on the bottom mirrors a love just begun and not yet confessed. The sequences are the Horikawa Hundred-Poem Sequences.
The author, "Minamoto no Toshiyori Ason," was the son of Major Counselor Minamoto no Tsunenobu. A central figure in the poetry circle of Emperor Horikawa, he compiled the Kin'yō Wakashū at the command of Retired Emperor Shirakawa. His personal collection is the Sanboku Kika Shū, and he has a poem in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
This poem opens the first book of love. The next two poems, 642 and 643, also come from the Horikawa sequences on "the beginning of love," so that three poems in a row sing of love's first stirrings. The final poem of the book, 703, seeks to hide the smoke of love by blending it into the sky, so that a book that opens with a love longing to show itself closes with a love trying to conceal itself.

First line, "Naniwae no": Naniwa Bay in Settsu is a famed place thick with reeds and seaweed. It shares the land of Naniwa with "Naniwame no" in the first line of 665 of this book.
Second line, "mo ni uzumoruru": "uzumoruru" is the attributive of "uzumoru," "buried in the seaweed." It figures a love that remains unknown to others.
Third line, "tamagashiwa": a word said to mean either a stone under the water or a kind of seaweed. The first three lines form a preface that leads to "arawarete" in the fourth line.
Fourth line, "arawarete dani": "dani" expresses a minimal wish, "if only by coming to the surface." The jewel-oak appearing from the weed overlaps with bringing love into the open.
Fifth line, "hito o koibaya": "baya" is a final particle of one's own wish, "I would love her."
Author: Minamoto no Toshiyori
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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