Hito shirezu omou kokoro wa fukamigusa hana sakite koso iro ni idekere - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

人知れず思ふ心はふかみ草
花咲きてこそ色に出でけれ

Roma-ji: Hito shirezu omou kokoro wa fukamigusa hana sakite koso iro ni idekere
English Translation: The heart that loves in
secret runs deep, like the peony,
the flower of depths,
and only when the blossoms open
does its color come to show
Meaning: My love, which no one knows, runs as deep as the peony called the flower of depths, and only now that its blossoms have opened has its color finally shown.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems I 684

Headnote: "Composed on the topic 'Love Grows Stronger with the Coming of Summer'"
Composed on the topic "Love grows stronger with the coming of summer." The heart that loves in secret is deep, he says, like the fukamigusa, and only when its flowers bloom does its color show. Joining "fukami," "depth" of the heart, with "fukamigusa," an old name for the peony that blooms in summer, he gives the topic shape through a plant: as the season advances and the flower opens to show its color, so his deepening love has at last come into view.
The author, "Kamo no Shigeyasu," was chief priest of the Kamo Wakeikazuchi Shrine. He held poetry contests at the shrine and compiled the Tsukimōde Wakashū, becoming the center of the poetic circle of the shrine families.
The next poem, 685, sings of "omoigusa," so that two poems voicing love through the names of plants stand together. The secret heart that 646 and 683 resolved would "never show its color" is here sung as having shown it at last.

First line, "hito shirezu": "unknown to others." Poems 658 and 687 open with the same line.
Second line, "omou kokoro wa": "the heart that loves."
Third line, "fukamigusa": "fukami" combines "fukami," "depth" of the heart, and "fukamigusa," an old name for the peony. The poem pauses here. Like "omoigusa" in the third line of the next poem, it names a plant.
Fourth line, "hana sakite koso": the emphatic "koso" closes with the perfective "kere" in the last line, "only when the flowers bloom in summer," taking up "with the coming of summer" in the topic.
Fifth line, "iro ni idekere": "kere," the perfective of "keri" expressing realization, closes the "koso" of the fourth line, "its color has shown," meaning that the love has come into view. It contrasts with "iro ni ideji to" in the fourth line of 646.
Author: Kamo no Shigeyasu
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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