Hi o hetsutsu shigesa wa masaru omoigusa au koto no ha no nado nakaruran - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

日を経つつ繁さはまさる思ひ草
逢ふことのはのなどなかるらん

Roma-ji: Hi o hetsutsu shigesa wa masaru omoigusa au koto no ha no nado nakaruran
English Translation: Day after day
the longing-grass grows thicker
in its tangled growth,
yet the leaves of words to meet,
why are there none at all?
Meaning: Day after day my longing grows thicker, like the longing-grass, and yet why is there not a single leaf of words from her saying that we might meet?
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems I 685

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
Day by day the longing-grass grows thicker, he says, so why are there no leaves of words to meet? Entrusting his love to the "omoigusa," "longing-grass," he laments that while his longing grows thicker every day like the grass, from her there is not a single word, not a single leaf, promising a meeting.
The author, "Tsumori no Kunimitsu," was of the Tsumori clan, who served as priests of the Sumiyoshi Shrine. Little is known of his life.
Following "fukamigusa" in the preceding poem, 684, it sings of love through the name of a plant. Poems 657 and 660 of this book also speak of "kotonoha," "words."

First line, "hi o hetsutsu": "tsutsu" expresses continuation, "as the days go by."
Second line, "shigesa wa masaru": "shigesa" is the thickness of growing grass, overlaid with the abundance of longing.
Third line, "omoigusa": the name of a grass of the fields, to which love is entrusted. The poem pauses here. Like "fukamigusa" in the third line of the preceding poem, it names a plant.
Fourth line, "au koto no ha no": "koto no ha" joins "koto," "matter," in "au koto," "meeting," with "kotonoha," "words," and through "omoigusa" lets "ha," "leaf," echo. It contains the same word as "kotonoha mo" in the third line of 660.
Fifth line, "nado nakaruran": "nado" is an interrogative adverb, and "ran" the conjectural of cause "ramu," "why are there none?"
Author: Tsumori no Kunimitsu
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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