Hito shirezu omoisometeshi kokoro koso ima wa namida no iro to narikere - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

人知れず思ひそめてし心こそ
今は涙の色となりけれ

Roma-ji: Hito shirezu omoisometeshi kokoro koso ima wa namida no iro to narikere
English Translation: The very heart that
in secret first began to love,
dyed deep with longing,
now, I find, has come to be
the crimson color of my tears
Meaning: The heart that first began to love in secret, steeping itself in longing, has now, I find, turned into the very color of my tears.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems I 687

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
The heart that first began to love in secret, he says, has now become the color of my tears. A love first held in secret has deepened with time until it shows itself in crimson tears. In "omoisome" he joins "some," "to begin," and "some," "to dye," setting it against the "color" of the fourth line.
The author, "Minamoto no Suesada," is said to have been a warrior in the service of the Taira, and he was also known as a poet.
Like "omoisometeki" in the last line of 645 of this book, it uses "omoisomu" for love's beginning. The next poem, 688, also says that tears dye the sleeves and reveal the depth of the heart, so that two poems on the color of tears stand together.

First line, "hito shirezu": "unknown to others." Poems 658 and 684 open with the same line.
Second line, "omoisometeshi": "some" combines "some," "to begin" to love, and "some," "to dye," a related word to "iro," "color," in the fourth line. "Teshi" is the continuative of the perfective "tsu" with the attributive of the past "ki."
Third line, "kokoro koso": the emphatic "koso" closes with the perfective "kere" in the last line.
Fourth line, "ima wa namida no": "now, of my tears," set against the beginning of love in the second line.
Fifth line, "iro to narikere": "iro" is the crimson color of tears, and "kere," the perfective of "keri" expressing realization, closes the "koso" of the third line. It shares the color of tears with "tamoto o somuru" in the fourth line of the next poem, 688.
Author: Minamoto no Suesada
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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